Xata
by keiranhalcyon2010
Summary: YAHF Xander dresses as our favorite Professor of Humanity. The consequences are like knocking over the single pebble that starts the avalanche of change not only for the Scoobies, but for the world.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 – Strange Awakenings**

Commander Data of the _USS Enterprise-E_ blinked. The last thing he had seen was the tremendous roar of competing energies from firing his hand phaser directly into the Thalaron Generator of the Super Warbird _Scimitar_, which had been about to fire its lethal radiation pulse directly into the _Enterprise_. He had expected to be destroyed instantly; whimsically he expected to find himself in some form of afterlife…although he doubted that would be the case…he was an android, an artificial intelligence with a basic understanding of emotions. He knew that if he was ever damaged beyond repair it would mean falling into oblivion of non-existence. It was something that frightened him.

Yet he had fired that phaser into the Generator knowing that he was doing so to protect his friends, knowing full well that he was courting that oblivion. Yet the oblivion did not come.

He now stood in what was analyzed as a late twentieth century town on Earth; judging from the halogen streetlights above him, the tarred painted roads with Internal Combustion cars parked along them, suburban housing using rather primitive brick, concrete and wood construction.

There was a problem however. This was clearly not your average suburbia from this time period. The scene around Data was absolute bedlam. There was small children sized 'creatures' that Data recognized as being 'pint' sized versions of ancient Terran myths of evils, demons, and so forth. They were snarling and screaming and charging at each other and at others.

One of them found him as a target though and tried to attack. The little demon flew through the air over twenty feet after Data intercepted its attack and redirected it.

"If this is the afterlife, it's rather quaint," commented Data to himself, drawing his Type 2 phaser and flipping open his Tricorder. The readings were confusing. He appeared to be in a small town and temporal readings clearly stated that this was the year 1998. His scans focused on the small demons and what he found shocked him. There was an unknown quantum flux inhabiting the physical bodies of normal children that was clearly altering them somehow. In fact, he detected a similar but different overlaying quantum flux all over the town. He set his phaser to heavy stun and started walking down the street, firing at any creature that threatened himself or others.

"Xander! What are you doing!?" shouted a wide eyed young woman rushing towards him. She had red hair and wore a rather brief skin-hugging outfit of short skirt and top that left her abdomen rather alluringly bare.

"That is not my name," said Data, tilting his head to the side, looking at her curiously. The woman elicited a strange longing emotion in him for some reason. He turned and fired another phaser beam into a nasty looking small devil demon, which collapsed instantly. "I am Commander Data."

"Oh my…" she looked in astonishment at Data. "You don't know me?"

"No, I don't, I suggest you find safety, however," said Data, phasering another demon and then reached out to guide the young woman to safety. He was surprised to see his hand going right through her arm. "You are non-corporeal. And yet my tricorder indicates you are alive…however the quantum flux is completely taking over your form."

"Fascinating," said the young woman, "I was dressed as a ghost for Halloween…and now I am a ghost. And you Xander dressed as Data from the TV show Star Trek…and now you are Data."

"TV show?" asked Data in askance.

"Yeah…oh this is complicated," she moaned, "there is a TV show about the voyages of the _Enterprise_ and everything and my friend dressed as you." Data frowned at the concept…it was clearly illogical, yet, all his scans though limited and events around them clearly supported her story. Another yellowish demon approached growling, looking interested in them in a clearly predatory fashion. Data turned his phaser on it and fired.

"That is set on stun, right?" asked the young woman.

"Of course," nodded Data, gesturing to his Tricorder. "I detected the anomalous readings in the 'children'."

"Wow, I guess technology in the 24th century has its benefits, by the way, my name is Willow," she said.

"Pleased to meet you, Willow," nodded Data.

"We have to find Buffy…she'll know what to do…oh my…Buffy…" said Willow, looking over Data's shoulder. Data turned to regard a petite beautiful young woman with dark hair, wearing what looked like a circa eighteenth century red corseted dress. The woman was looking around slowly and had a lost expression on her face. Willow headed in the direction of this Buffy and Data was quick to follow.

"Buffy! Are you ok?" asked Willow worriedly.

Buffy did not get a chance to answer because at that moment three monsters approached, two of which were rather large and had goat horns sticking out of their heads with mottled brown or red skin. They growled threateningly.

"Buffy, what do we do?" asked Willow panicking. Buffy didn't answer and slumped to the ground in a clear faint at the sight of the monsters. Seeing that this Buffy was not going to help any time soon, Data turned around and fired three shots from his phaser at blurring speeds. Two of the monsters slumped to the floor, while the third was clearly hardier than the others and only seemed to be knocked backwards, but it was enough to convince it that there was easier prey out there.

Data knelt next to Buffy and hovered his Tricorder over her prone form.

"Is she ok?" asked Willow worriedly.

"A medical Tricorder would work better, but these readings show that she had a severe elevation in adrenaline and emotion…and couldn't cope with the stress," reported Data.

"She fainted?" asked Willow aghast. "That's impossible, Buffy's like this supergirl, the Slayer, very strong constitution…unless…"

"She's been effected by her costume," concluded Data. "Which is that of a eighteenth century noblewoman by the quality of the dress, and if my historical and literary databases are undamaged, they would not be trained or be able to cope with a life threatening situation."

"Buffy," said Willow, shaking the shoulders of the fainted girl, in an effort to rouse her. "Are you all right?"

"What?" moaned Buffy, sitting up wearily.

"Buffy," said Willow again, flicking her fingers in front of the girl.

"Buffy?" said Buffy in confusion. "What uncouth form of address are you calling me by?"

"I guess you're right," said Willow ruefully to Data, then turned to address Buffy again, "What year is it?"

Data took this opportunity to help the 'noblewoman' up to her feet, as she answered, "1775, I believe." She said looking at Data and Willow in confusion and she was hyperventilating. "I-I don't understand. Who are you?"

"We're friends," said Willow simply, not wanting to go into the explanation.

"F-friends of whom? Y-your dress…everything is strange! How did I come to be here?"

"Breathe okay, breathe," said Willow imploringly, "you're going to faint again." She turned to Data. "How are we going to get through this without the Slayer?"

"What is this Slayer you keep referring to?" asked Data curiously.

Before Willow could answer another monster burst out from behind a nearby tree and attacked. If Data did not have reflex protocols that worked at the speed that information was internally transferred in a computer, the monster might have had a chance. But a simple zap of the phaser later it was down and out for the count.

"I suggest we get inside before we come across anything more…" began Data but was interrupted when Buffy began screaming incoherently and pointing at something behind Data and Willow's backs.

"A DEMON! A DEMON!" she scooted behind Data to shield herself. Data turned but did not fire, as the only thing approaching was what appeared to be a sports utility vehicle with its headlights on.

"That's not a demon. It's a car," said Willow with a forlorn sigh.

"What does it want?" moaned Buffy.

"It wants nothing," said Data, "it is merely a form of transport, ma'am, one that you are not familiar with. Where can we retreat to?"

"We can go to Buffy's house, it's closest," said Willow.

"Lead the way," said Data, threading Buffy's arm through his own, but making sure his Tricorder and Phaser was handy. "I can scan ahead, so we can avoid encountering more of the 'monsters'."

"Cool," said Willow and turned left and down the street. It took better part of fifteen minutes to get to Buffy's house while Data called out warnings of mini-demons or monsters on the roads ahead. There were occasions where they had to fight their way through a grouping of them, but Data's lightning fast Phaser cleared the way easily enough.

Buffy's home was a typical two floor suburbia, with a decently up kept lawn and flowers and a nice backyard, even a white picket fence separating the neighbors from each other. They entered the house from the backyard kitchen door after Data had scanned the house for any intruders. The kitchen itself was nicely appointed, with all the essentials and also the personal touch of those who lived there.

Data had the opportunity to examine himself for the first time, as in the hallway just outside of the kitchen there was a floor length mirror. He was wearing the pre-Dominion War Starfleet Uniform of bold yellow (denoting engineering or operations officers) with black strips and still only had his Lt. Commander pips on his collar. His face was differently structured though, and amazingly his skin and eyes had a 'real' look to it, not the pale artificial nanopolymer and he could 'feel' the sensation – it was as if the Borg Queen had finished her work when she had subdued him during the second Borg Incursion into Federation space. The only thing reminiscent of himself was the slicked back black hair.

"Where are we?" asked Buffy, frowning at the interior surroundings of the home.

"Your place," answered Willow. "Now we just need to…"

There was a sudden banging on the front door. Data and his two impromptu companions head to the front door to look.

"Don't open it!" said Willow urgently. Data flipped open his Tricorder.

"It's a mini-monster," said Data, still marveling over the fact that monsters were somehow real where he was now. "And its…gone…it has moved on to the next house."

"This…this could be me," said Buffy, she was holding a framed picture of herself in which she was wearing a spaghetti strap top and smiling charmingly for the camera.

"It _is _you, Buffy," said Willow. "Can't you remember at all?"

"No! I don't understand any of this! Uh, uh, th…this is some other girl!" said Buffy desperately and put the picture frame back. "I would never wear this, that low apparel, and I don't like this place, and I don't like you and I just want to go home!"

"You _are_ home!" insists Willow. Buffy was practically in tears now and Willow turned in exasperation to Data. "She couldn't have dressed up like Xena?"

"A mythological female warrior, also a Princess, who fought against the 'evil' members of the Greek Pantheon of Gods," said Data, blinking and tilted his head to the side, "indeed, such an individual would be most useful in our situation."

Data's Tricorder beeped him a warning almost too late. He turned his Phaser on the small windows in the front door and fired just as the menacing hand of a monster punched through. Buffy cringed and whimpered at the sound of the weapon firing. The monster yelped and ran away.

But before any further conversation could be had on how to get out of this predicament, a very loud female scream reached their ears. Data didn't hesitate and opened the front door and rushed out. What he saw made him thankful he had switched off emotional abilities on the walk over to the house, for he was sure to have been gaping in astonishment.

A very attractive nubile young woman dressed in a skintight leopard print catsuit was running towards the house. She was pursued by another creature straight out of Terran mythos…the Sasquatch. Data rushed forward and sent a phaser beam directly into the fabled creature, which stumbled back as if kicked but was not rendered unconscious. The catwoman rushed into his arms at that moment.

"Xander! Help me!" Data decided to comply, and in the interest of speed, summarily picked her up and rushed back towards the house, sending another phaser blast into the Sasquatch. Data closed the door behind himself and put down the squirming catwoman.

"Cordelia!" said Willow, eyeing the catwoman.

"Wait a…" Cordelia looked from Data to Buffy to Willow, "what's going on?"

"Okay," said Willow steeling herself. "Your name is Cordelia, you're not a cat, you're in high school and we're your friends. Well. Sort of." She clearly thought that this Cordelia was also affected by the phenomena, but Data's Tricorder scan indicated otherwise, she was a normal young woman.

"That's nice, Willow," said Cordelia scornfully, "and you went mental, when?"

"I don't believe she has been affected," said Data with a simulated frown.

"You know us?" asked Willow.

"Yeah, lucky me," drolled Cordelia, "what's with the name game?"

"A lot's going on," said Willow, looking dubious in trying to explain it.

"No kidding, I was attacked by Jo-Jo, the dog faced boy. Look at my costume!" She showed an obviously torn sleeve. "Do you really think that Partytown is going to give me my deposit back? Not likely!"

"Okay," said Willow, largely ignoring Cordelia's rant. "I'm non-corporeal so nothing can hurt me. You guys stay here and I'll get some help. If something tries to get in, just fight it off."

"Well, i..it's not our place to fight," said Buffy indignantly. "Uh…surely some men will protect us."

"What's that riff?" asked Cordelia, looking at Buffy as if she had smelled something nasty.

"It's like amnesia, okay? They don't know who they are. Just sit tight," said Willow and promptly walked straight through the wall, causing Buffy to stare in amazement.

"Who died and made her boss?" asked Cordelia.

"She is the only one's with overall tactical knowledge of our situation," said Data. "Myself and Miss Buffy here are not of this time nor place. In fact I believe I have been plucked out of my own Universe and placed within Xander."

"Whoah," said Cordelia, "so you really are Star Trek boy now…hmm…let me guess…Data?"

"At your service," confirmed Data, keeping a sensor watch over the house with his Tricorder. "I suggest we fortify our position more by barring windows with furniture. Could you please go upstairs and see to it?"

"Sure," she said and headed upstairs while Data started to upend a table against the large window in the living room.

"Surely there's somewhere we can go," protested Buffy, "a safe haven."

"It would be tactically unwise to retreat into an already unknown and chaotic situation without more information. I am keeping a watch on the house; if anything approaches I will know. Willow said we would be safe here for the moment."

"You would take orders from a woman?" said Buffy scornfully. "Are you feeble in some way?"

"On the contrary," said Data, noting that he would've been offended had he had his emotions enabled. "You are far safer with me than with anyone else in this town or the planet, for that matter. You saw what I did to the demons who attacked us on the way here."

"Are you some kind of sorcerer that you can fling lightning from your hands?" she asked beginning to look weary.

"You have no frame of reference to understand what I am," said Data. "But for the purposes of this argument, from a certain point of view I can be referred to as a mechanical wizard."

A beeping from his Tricorder interrupted any further conversation. Data rushed towards the kitchen with Phaser raised and tracking a figure, which had just entered the house. It was a tall classically handsome man with black, gelled hair and wearing all black. He looked at Data and later Buffy who ran in a bit later with recognition and seemed very alert (reasonable given the situation outside) but Data did not know him and was not taking any chances.

"Oh good!" said the stranger, "You're all right. It's total chaos out there."

"Please identify yourself," said Data, glancing at his Tricorder while keeping his Phaser trained on the stranger.

"What are you talking about Xander?" he looked at Data with bemusement.

"Identify yourself," repeated Data more strongly, "because my readings indicate you are clinically dead, while your brain retains its function and there is that strange quantum flux that inhabiting all of the 'monsters' in this town."

"Uh…it's me…Angel," said the 'man'. "You know…the vampire with a soul…"

"I was not aware that the Terran vampire required a soul or not to do its work," said Data with no emotional inflection, which to Angel made the young man appear quite menacing. "However, the fact that you have showed no aggression does count in your favor."

"Okay," said Angel looking genuinely confused, "will someone tell me what's going on?"

"They don't know who they are," said Cordelia, coming back into the kitchen, "Everyone in the town's turned into their costumes, which is mostly monsters and the like." She smiled flirtatiously at Angel. "How are you?"

At that point, as if things could not get worse, the lights went out. Data instantly switched his vision to work in the infrared spectrum and so was unaffected. Buffy grabbed Cordelia in fright.

"Do you mind?" asked Cordelia unpleasantly. Buffy seeing that no aid was coming from this quarter withdrew.

"If indeed, you are an ally," Data looked at Cordelia questioningly, who nodded, "then you should take responsibility for Buffy and keep an eye on her. I will watch over Cordelia. In the meantime, I can scan for any hostile creatures that approach the house."

And as if fate had listened the Tricorder gave a beep in warning, and a second later before anyone could do anything, the kitchen door behind Angel burst from its hinges and a snarling stereotypically dressed vampire tackled the vampire with a soul. There was a massive fight as the two managed to regain a vertical base and started to trade punches and kicks. Data couldn't get a clean shot. He didn't want to stun a potential ally when it was possible he would be needed later.

"Get some distance from him!" shouted Data, shifting his aim to keep up. Angel either didn't want to or didn't understand why, as he kept engaging the attacking vampire. Finally, Data had enough; he dialed down his Phaser to its lowest setting, and shot a lance of energy into Angel, who stumbled back away from the other vampire. With a flick of switch and another energy lance hit the attacking vampire at a heavy stun setting just below kill, which sent it into the land of nod.

"I didn't think that thing actually worked," said Angel ruefully, rubbing his chest where the Phaser blast had hit.

"Well now you know better," said Cordelia. Angel froze as he looked around.

"Where's Buffy?"

Data looked at where the 'noblewoman' was supposed to be and only saw empty space and an open front door.

"Damn, she was right behind me," moaned Cordelia.

"Let's go," said Angel, and pushed Data and Cordelia towards the door. "I need that weapon of yours, since it seems to be so effective against vampires."

"Very well, I can scan for her as well," said Data showing the Tricorder and started to move forward on his own, the unlikely trio rushed out into the night.

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Data followed his Tricorder reading on Buffy's lifesign that was stored in the memory of the device. She had a good head start on her erstwhile rescuers. Angel seemed rather dubious as to the accuracy of the device, but they had nothing else to go on as they moved through the chaotic streets of the town.

"Are you sure she came this way?" asked Cordelia.

"I am reading her lifesign about six hundred meters in a southerly direction moving quite fast," reported Data.

They turned the nearest corner in that direction and headed down an alleyway between two buildings to save time. They burst into the next street over and had to immediately repulse an attack from a group of four mini-monsters. Data's Phaser lanced out twice while he threw a relatively light kick at the third attacker, which sent it yelping in pain as it flew ten feet away with the force of the blow. Angel swiftly knocked out the last monster and the trio continued across the street.

They emerged into the next alleyway to see the struggling Buffy, her gown dirtied and crumpled as a stereotypical pirate had her pushed against the wall and was about to kiss her forcefully. Data wanted to conserve power for his Phaser and holstered it and his Tricorder and rushed forward extremely fast and with supreme android strength ripped the pirate off Buffy and held the snarling and cursing pirate two feet off the ground with his limbs flopping uselessly. Data reached up with his other hand and a Vulcan neck pinch later sent the pirate into unconsciousness. Data dropped the pirate in a heap and helped Buffy to her feet.

"Are you injured, ma'am?" asked Data. But Buffy yelped when she saw Angel approach.

"He's, he's a vampire!" yelped Buffy anxiously, pointing at Angel. Data realized she must have seen the fight earlier and fled when she saw her apparent saviors accepting the allegiance of a vampire.

"It's okay," said Cordelia intently, "Angel's a good vampire, he would never hurt you."

"Really?" said Buffy meekly.

"Absolutely, he's our friend," said Cordelia with a coaxing smile.

"Guys!" came a familiar voice. It was Willow, running down the alley in the direction they had come from.

"Willow!" said Angel.

"Guys, we gotta go!" she insisted and pointed some distance behind her. Approaching them was a gaggle of monsters and tall bleach blonde pale-faced man wearing a black leather trenchcoat and looking at them with a murderous glee and satisfaction. Data's Tricorder confirmed the man was vampire.

"We are outnumbered," declared Data.

"This way!" shouted Angel, pointing down the other side of the alley, "Find an open warehouse!" Angel lifted Buffy in his arms and the group rushed down the alley, the blonde vampire in fast pursuit.

"There is a warehouse that will fit our needs over there," said Data pointing at the large building some hundred meters away. They rushed towards it and found that the main entrance was a large sliding door made out of corrugated thin steel that would never hold against the monsters. But they had no choice. Angel had taken the lead and stopped, placing Buffy on her own feet. Data easily shifted the large door and the others rushed in, and closed it after Angel had guided Buffy inside.

"Just stay here," said Angel intently to Buffy, who was standing next to a scared looking Cordelia, watching as the others worked to secure the door. Data picked up heavy barrels to place in front of the door, following it up with a heavy grate. They could now hear the monsters outside the door starting to pound on it. Data saw the steel bend worryingly and knew there was no way it would hold and to try to do more was an exercise in futility.

He backed up from the door and drew his Phaser and his right arm raised ready to deliver pain or unconsciousness at a nanoseconds notice.

"Retreat!" shouted Data. Everyone saw the virtue of the plan immediately and ran deeper into the warehouse as the door groaned and gave way, allowing two monsters inside to push away the barrels and the blonde vampire entered the warehouse contemptuously, with more monsters following in his wake.

When they had finally run out of room and had their backs to the wall and could retreat no further. Data and Angel stepped forward, with Buffy and Cordelia cowering behind, while Willow watched helplessly and cursed her non-corporealism.

The monsters stopped a few feet away from the two defenders after a whistle from the blonde vampire stopped them.

"Hold on there little fellas," said the blonde vampire in a cockney accent. The little monsters snarled and hissed menacingly but obeyed. "Now isn't this a sight," said the vampire in appreciation, "a Trekkie geek and a royal poof protecting a sniveling, lonely lost little lamb…I love it. Get them!"

Data snapped off three shots with his Phaser before he had to go into a melee combat with the monsters. He gave a backfist to his right, sending a monster flying, while with perfect balance kicked to his left, and loosing another Phaser shot in front of him. Angel charged into the fray and managed to knock out two before one managed to bowl his feet out from under him; leaving others to leap on top of him in a pile on.

But Data had the collective martial arts knowledge of all Federation member worlds at his disposal, added to this the reflexes of an android, plus a Phaser, made him a sight to behold. He ducked under a punch lashing out with fist and Phaser, coming up he rolled forward to give him some more room. He was a whirling dervish of kicks and punches and evasions and Phaser blasts until…

"Stop!"

Data froze when he saw that the blonde vampire had used the battle as a distraction and was now behind him holding Buffy against the wall. Angel was being subdued by two monsters and was in no position to help.

"Drop the ray gun and don't move, Trek, or the Slayer gets dead," said the blonde vampire. Data analyzed the tactical situation in a nanosecond and came to a decision. He dropped his Phaser at his feet and kicked it away but remained in a ready position…the remaining monsters were giving a respectful distance to the android, and were clearly reluctant to move in.

The blonde vampire turned to Buffy and punched her across the face with savage delight.

"Will you scream for me?"

"Buffy!" said Angel, desperately struggling against the monsters holding him down.

The blonde vampire placed his left hand around a whimpering and terrified Buffy's throat. He strokes her forehead with his other hand almost lovingly. He then grabbed her black hair and slowly moved in for the bite; his face changing into a grotesque demon mockery of a human face with overlarge fangs and yellow flashing eyes.

Data was about to rush forward with his maximum speed available to him to stop this, when suddenly everything stopped. The vampire was frozen halfway in his journey towards Buffy's neck. The monsters seemed suddenly to have become statues; Angel, Cordelia and Willow were also frozen in tableaus of horror at what was about to happen.

Data straightened from his horse stance in astonishment and looked around. He whipped out his Tricorder but the readings were chaotic and baffling.

"Oh you can put that away Data, don't bother," came a very familiar, yet hated voice from behind Data.

The android whirled to regard a tall man with receding dark brown curly hair and a face that seemed to be born with a perpetual mischievous smirk on it. The man was wearing the modern black and grey Starfleet uniform with command red trimmings and undershirt and wore the rank of Captain. Data engaged his emotional subroutines and let disgust show on his features.

"Q!"

"Why hello there my dear Pinocchio," said Q nonchalantly. "Got yourself in a bit of a fix here, now don't you?"

Data's lips thinned in irritation at the nickname. Q was a member of the Q Continuum, a race of seemingly omnipotent and extremely powerful beings, whose motives and reasons for existing were a mystery, yet from anecdotal evidence they were there to keep the chaotic forces of the Universe in check, but there was undoubtedly more to it than that.

"So here I am," continued Q, "strolling along the Metaverse, when I see that old scallywag Janus plucked you out of your very noble death for a stint in this utterly, dull and boring Universe."

"Janus, the Roman mythical god of Chaos and Division of self?" said Data with a frown.

"That's the one," said Q with a grin. "He never could resist a bit of mischief, a man after my own heart," concluded Q dramatically clutching at his chest. "But enough about me, I am here about you, my dear Data."

"Can you not send me home?" asked Data, though he knew the answer already.

"No," said Q, "your time in your own Universe has passed. You are now here and will continue to remain here within the personality and mind of Alexander Lavelle Harris, you will become like a Trill symbiote to him, through this you will finally get to experience true human emotions…my gift to you. In addition," Q snapped his fingers. "I just altered the parameters of the spell that pathetic little chaos mage cast to Janus. When the spell lifts the body you are in will remain internally an android with a few enhancements of my own and will retain the proper outer appearance of Xander, though the Tricorder and Phaser will become the stage props that they once were. You're very resourceful, Data, I'm sure you can manage without them."

"Why are you doing this?" asked Data. "You would doom Xander to watch all his friends die while he remains effectively immortal."

"The Hellmouths are dangerous places," said Q. "You've been granted a second chance at true life, Data. It would be truly a waste for you to die to those pathetic overgrown mosquitoes if you were stuck in a human host. And I spoke to Xander before appearing to you, after explaining the situation at length…he agreed, though he insisted that he retain the biological capacity to mate."

"How magnanimous of you," said Data dryly.

"I have my moments," said Q arrogantly. "Anyway, I'll be stopping by a little later to explain things to these…Scoobies…as well. This little intervention of mine has got a few consequences, not to mention twisting the panties of those higher beings in this Universe. Have fun, my dear Professor of Humanity." And without further ado, Q vanished in a flash of white light.

Data looked around…Time was still frozen.

"Q!"

As if the being had waited for Data's indignant shout, Time resumed it's normal flow. The magic that had put Data in the driver's seat and subsumed everyone turning them into their costumes vanished. Data felt himself being pulled back within the consciousness of Xander Harris, there he and Xander's memories and experiences merged…they were still two separate entities within the same body…but were now symbiotic, just like the Trill.

Xander blinked as the process ended and he was back in control of his new android body. He felt Data with him clearly and was amazed…for a brief while he had considered the whole thing with Q and the explanation of what was happening and what was going to happen a dream…but it was now amazingly real. He marveled at the knowledge in his mind…it was amazing, astonishing, wonderful and also terrible. Data's memories of the countless battles and death of the Dominion War was too painful to consider so he put that into the back of his mind for later.

He looked up to see that all the monsters around him were now small children again, dressed in their Halloween outfits and crying and complaining about the sudden strange place they had woken up in.

"I'm scared! I want my mommy," said small girl that had not a few seconds ago been a very nasty gargoyle like monster.

Spike (the blonde vampire) looked around in astonishment at his now reduced posse and their pathetic wailing and turned back to finish the job with Buffy. Only to realize that he was now only holding a black wig of long hair and that Buffy was clearly back to normal and was giving Spike a 'shit-eating' grin and a promise of dusting.

"Hi honey, I'm home," she mocked. She punched Spike once in the gut, and twice in the face in rapid succession, making the vampire stagger back into a mobile set of stairs. Spike grabbed a length of pipe that was leaning their intent on using the weapon the even the odds against the now recovered Vampire Slayer. She managed to intercept his attack with the pipe and used his momentum to smash him against the wall he had been holding her against. Buffy ripped the pipe out of the winded Spike's grip and used it as a Quarterstaff and swung it into his jaw and jabbed him in the stomach, causing him to double over in pain.

"You know what? It's good to be me," said Buffy confidently. She smashed the pipe into Spike's chin causing the vampire to slump to the floor. Buffy backed away and threw the pipe to the ground. "Be glad that I don't have a stake Spike, or else you'd be dust…get out of here."

Spike growled and got his feet, bursting through nearby window and out into the night.

"Hey, Buff, welcome back," said Xander walking closer.

"Yeah! You too," smiled Buffy.

"You guys remember what happened?" asked Cordelia curiously.

"Vividly," said Xander with a wince at the memories and knowledge that were roaring to the surface of his consciousness. "It's was like I was there, but couldn't get out."

"Yeah, I know the feeling," said Cordelia, "this outfit's totally skintight." Which was something that Xander really appreciated in a way that every man appreciated a good-looking woman, of course and he knew that Data was intrigued by vague subconscious lust that Xander was feeling. Angel walked over towards Buffy at this point.

"You okay?" asked the vampire with a soul, and put an arm around Buffy's shoulders, leading her way.

"Yeah," said Buffy, giving that sexy half-smile of hers to Angel.

When the couple were nearly at the doors of the warehouse, Cordelia suddenly sprouted an indignant face. "Hello? It felt like I was talking, my lips were moving and…"

"Cordelia," said Xander, shaking his head. "Give it up. You're never going to get between those two."

"Well," said buxom young woman, pointing at the kids who were now huddled in a little group, "I guess you better get them back to their parents." Xander nodded and moved towards the children, and noticed that Willow was gone…

_She's probably back in her body_ theorized Data.

_Wherever she left it,_ mused Xander as he escorted the large group of small children away from the warehouse. _The whole thing was probably a very real out of body experience for her. Like those you read about._ On the way back to the High School Xander took the opportunity to examine the children to see if there was any injuries that carried over in the fights…thankfully there didn't…the children monsters who had been phasered into unconsciousness had woken up after the magic had left and there was not a scratch on them.

Xander later managed to escape the wrath of the parents of being so late by simply stating that some of the children had managed to wander off in the chaos of the night and that he had been searching for them. The little guys all agreed eagerly with Xander and supported his story and his case was even helped further when the children told stories of what their monster selves had done…which further helped his case when the parents thought that it was merely fanciful flights of a child's imagination.

Principal Snyder, the little fuhrer in charge of Sunnydale High, had been looking fit to burst and expel, but the parent's reactions had clearly put a nix in his knee jerk reaction when it came to Buffy Summers and all her friends.

Finally, he managed to escape and when he had walked barely fifteen feet from the High School campus…

"Psssttt…Xander!" came a strong whisper from a darkened alley between the High School and the housing complex next to it. "Over here!" Now Xander would normally never even consider for a moment going near the alley considering all the things that went bump in the night in good old Sunnyhell. But since he was 'off the menu' so to speak for vampires for the rest of his conceivable existence, he turned and stared into the darkness of the alley…with normal vision he could barely make out a darkened figure standing there, but as his vision shifted into infrared, it clearly showed that his attention grabber had body heat was human and female judging from the voice. He walked closer and shifted his vision back to normal though dialing up the ambient light.

"Dawn?" said Xander in astonishment as he came within a few feet of her.

Dawn Summers was Buffy's little sister. She was twelve years old, a little hellion on two legs, and dangerously cute with her cutey face and long brown hair. Ever since Xander had become Buffy's friend he had occasionally helped to babysit her when Buffy was Slaying and their mother Joyce was in Los Angeles promoting new art for the Gallery that she ran. And since she would be very curious about Buffy's absences it was decided to bring her in on the whole vampire and demons thing. The girl had believed it instantly not even needing proof. She simply accepted it.

The unfortunate side effect of the whole babysitting for Xander was that the girl had developed an irrepressible crush on him…since he was the powerful Xander who had saved Buffy's life numerous times, even brought her back from the dead with CPR when Buffy briefly died after being fed on and drowned by the Master.

She had told him without blushing or stammering that she had dibs on marrying him when she was old enough. Yes, a right little hellion and just as stubborn as Buffy, if not more so.

However.

What was standing in front of Xander now was not a twelve year old. The young woman in front of him looked maybe eighteen…was wearing Dawn Summers' face and hair put up in an artful bun, had a bust and body that would make Cordelia green with envy and was wearing a familiar looking shiny silver skintight bodysuit. Over her left eye where an eyebrow was supposed to be was a chrome metallic ocular implant that jutted out and at her right ear a small arrangement of metallic spikes jutted out and had hooked itself on her skin. Xander looked down and…yes, the left hand had the polyduridium exoskeleton.

Xander closed his eyes with a heavy sigh and frowned.

_There must have been residual nanoprobes left in her blood when the magic left_, said Data.

_Everyone else returned to normal,_ argued Xander, _I'm special because of Q's intervention to save you. What's different about her? Why is she older?_

_Too little data to state any facts_ said Data apologetically. _Unless Q intervened here as well for some reason_.

This mental conversation had taken place in less time than it took to blink.

"You dressed as Seven of Nine," stated Xander.

"Yes," squeaked Dawn, stepping from foot to foot nervously clearly awaiting his reaction.

"You dressed as a former Borg drone, rescued from the Borg Collective by the _USS Voyager_, on a path to reclaiming what little humanity she had left," continued Xander.

"Yes…" she said wincing.

"How did your mom let you go out in that…suit?"

"I got my usual witch costume and bought this with my pocket money from Ethan's…"

Xander eyed her and raised an eyebrow. Dawn winced preparing for the worst…

"Good," said Xander.

"Good?" said Dawn with incredulity. "Good?! How can this possibly be good? It is cool, though."

"Good because now I feel immeasurably more content that you can look after yourself in this town…start at the beginning Dawn-patrol did anything weird happen before everything went back to normal with everyone?"

"Ummm…I can't say," she said guiltily. "You'd never believe me."

Playing Data's hunch he said, "Did you see Q?" Dawn looked astonished and her eyes widened comically.

"How'd you know?"

"He visited me as well," said Xander wryly. "I turned into Data because of my Starfleet uniform…this is what attracted Q's attention I think. Anyway, long story short, Data was about to die in the Trek Universe and this spell pulled him into me and turned me into him. Q in his own weird way; likes Data, and as such I am now a permanent host to Data…and to accommodate that I had to be turned into a 80/20 hybrid of android and human."

"Wow," said Dawn, but then her eyes turned sad. "Data dies?"

"From the point of view of the Trek Universe…yes," said Xander wincing, as the memory of firing that Phaser into the Thalaron Generator returned in full vivid force. "So what did Q do with you?"

"Well, he will or has or arggh, I hate it when talking about temporal mechanics, also take a liking to Seven of Nine or at least Q's son will," explained Dawn. "So when Q Junior saw me…Seven appear in this Universe, he alerted Daddy. Q Senior told me that in the future, my survival would be closely linked to your survival, vis-à-vis Data's survival. So a snap of the fingers later…here I am, Dawn Summers, human/Borg hybrid."

Dawn using the statement 'vis-à-vis' was a surreal cherry on top of this night.

"Did he explain why our fates are linked?" asked Xander.

"No," said Dawn in frustration, "he just muttered under his breath something like 'stupid monks, playing around with it' and then 'do a decent job if they're going to do it'."

"Well, Q did promise he'd be around very soon to explain things to the group," said Xander thoughtfully. "The nitty gritty of your new state of being is troubling me though…Seven of Nine has to regenerate in a Borg Alcove every two days at least…and we're in the wrong Universe to find one. If Q doesn't help I'm going to have to jury rig a compatible power source for you."

"Damn, I knew I forgot to ask Q something," snapped Dawn. "In the excitement I…"

"No need to explain Dawn, I understand," said Xander supportively. "I'm just wondering what to do about your mother now…she's expecting you home within the hour."

"Oh, I can just see it now," said Dawn with sigh, closing her eyes. "She'll absolutely freak."

"I have no doubt of that," said Xander and did a mental double take. "I'm starting to talk like Giles…"

'_I think it's about high time you shed that 'goofball' persona of yours,'_ said Data '_I understand something of loyalty to friends and family, but it shouldn't be a detriment to obtaining your own personal achievements. Willow will be happy to see you do so well even if you surpass her in certain areas._ Xander sighed and resolved to think about it later.

"I think it's time we give your mother…the Talk," said Xander seriously.

"You're not talking about the sex talk are you?" said Dawn sarcastically. Xander rolled his eyes at her.

"No, I'm talking about the speech that Giles so loves to give about Vampires and the true nature of the world. And then explain about you…"

"But Mom will be heavily into Mrs Denial-Mode, we'd have to have hard physical proof to show her," explained Dawn.

"I'll have to take her on a trip to one of the cemeteries then," said Xander grimly.

"But didn't Buffy say that Halloween was dead for the undead?"

"Yes, but it doesn't stop the newly sired vamps from rising," he replied. "OK, here's the plan…"

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Xander walked through the kitchen door into the Summers home. Said door was still in pieces on the floor from the fake vampire that had smashed it. Mrs Summers herself was busy bustling around the kitchen stacking knocked over appliances back into their places and using a broom to clean up the glass chips from the shattered windows in the door. Mrs Summers was a kind yet formidable woman who still looked really good despite the fact that she was somewhere in her forties. Her face had frowning wrinkles of worry but still retained a glow of youth that meant she looked after herself well. She was dressed in what Buffy would call 'Mom clothes'; conservative, unflattering and clothes that you could afford to get dirty in.

"Ah, hello Xander," said Joyce Summers.

"Mrs S," he greeted.

"You haven't seen Dawn around have you? Buffy's gotten back already and is in bed…Dawn's usually the first one back…" she said getting clearly worried.

"Relax, Mrs S, Dawn's with me," reassured Xander. "But before she can come home…there are few things that need to be explained to you."

"Like what?" asked Mrs S dubiously.

"The expression is 'Seeing is believing' in this case, I'm afraid," said Xander with a wince, adjusting his Starfleet uniform.

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And so it was that Xander accompanied Mrs S into one of the nearby cemeteries; they walked among the gloomy headstones and crypts with all the eerie sounds associated with such a place. He guided her to Row 25, Grave Plot Y, which had a freshly piled mound of dirt in front of a plastic cross, which had the name of the grave occupant written on it until a permanent headstone could be fashioned and put in place.

Xander knew where to go, because it had been relatively child's play for Dawn and him (from a 24th Century Computing perspective) to hack into the Morgue's Office computer from the computer lab in the High School…the lab would need new door locks though.

"Xander why are we here?" said Joyce pointedly, staring at the fresh grave.

"To open your eyes to the necessary truth," said Xander dead seriously. It had taken all of his and Data's collective persuasive abilities to convince the elder Summer's matriarch to follow him to the graveyard. "The grave in front of you is of one Bert Stackhouse. He was a thirty-year-old traveling salesman who specialized in selling all those fancy labor saving devices they're coming up with for the home. He was found dead in an alley two days ago. The local coroner ruled that a double-pronged sharp implement in the neck, which lacerated the artery there, had stabbed him and he died of exsanguination. The coroner also found foreign blood within Mr Stackhouse's mouth. The proper reports were filed and he was buried in short order yesterday."

"Ok…and?" said Joyce wearily, looking at Xander strangely.

"Well, I hope that Bert will oblige me and answer your question for you within the next few moments…"

Xander's sensitive audio sensors picked up the disturbances in the earth before the tell tale sign of shifting grave became visible.

'_I guess there is something to that curse you believe is on the Hellmouth,_' mused Data.

'_Yeah, never taunt Murphy, make whimsical wishes or use phrases like…well you know what I mean, _thought Xander in reply.

"Xander!?" said Joyce shrilly as a white fleshy hand burst out of the earth. In response Xander walked forward and just as the second hand burst out he grabbed both and pulled the newly risen vampire out of the earth like a ripened potato. Xander held Bert up by the collar of the expensive suit he was buried in and presented the vamped out struggling vampire to Mrs S. Xander was impressed at her fortitude at not having simply fainted. Her eyes were as wide as saucers and her breathing was very heavy though as she tried to come to terms with what she was seeing.

"Mrs S?" said Xander after a few long seconds in which Joyce was just staring at the flailing vampire in numb incomprehension. "Mrs S! Joyce!" The use of her given name with such volume seemed to snap herself out of her funk.

"Xander! What on earth…is…that?!" she said, pointing weakly at the vampire.

"I'll let you find out," said Xander, and gave a strong punch into the stomach of the vampire, causing it to moan in pain, "stop struggling so much, class is in session here!" He turned back to Joyce. "Now, Mrs S, do you have a hand mirror in your purse?"

"Yes, yes, of course," she said, still staring at the vamp.

"Please get it out…" She complied slowly holding out the small vanity in her shaking hands. "Good, now try to see my reflection and that of my struggling 'friend' here." Joyce turned around adjusting the vanity to the proper angle…she gasped and turned around to make sure her eyes were not deceiving her and turned back to check the reflection again.

"That's…that's…"

"Mrs S, what does not reflect an image, what crawls out of a grave dead yet alive, what has sharpened incisors to the extent that this 'individual' has?" Joyce turned around slowly to face Xander and her mind was reaching a horrible, inescapable conclusion.

"Vampire…" she half whispered.

"And ten points to Mrs Summers," said Xander with a grin. "Yes, the things that go bump in the night exist…almost every folk tale of demons, fairies, and mythical creatures exist…except for the boogy man. All existing right beneath the noses of humanity's self-delusion of logical reason and control that we supposedly have over the world."

"But…but surely…" said Joyce stammering and took a deep fortifying breath and with a visible effort of supreme will and stubbornness that reminded Xander that this was a Summers woman he was dealing with, she composed herself and asked, "Surely the government has some idea of all this?"

"As to that, I have no idea," said Xander, giving another punch to the recovering vampire, "I myself learned of the supernatural two years ago when Jesse died…" he felt that pang of guilt strike through his heart anew, "he was killed and turned into a vampire…I was forced to stake him."

"Oh," said Joyce sadly, she had wondered about the circumstances of that for a while. "I'm sorry."

"That's Ok," said Xander shaking his head to dispel the melancholy mood. "The government in all likelihood does know in certain select circles maybe, but a universal disclosure of the supernatural…no way, can you imagine the chaos? It took me staking a vampire wearing my best friend's face to finally accept the truth into my mind and heart…" Xander trailed off.

"You said staking?" said Joyce seeing that he was uncomfortable discussing it further. Xander put the vamp on his feet and gave a devastating elbow strike to the back of the head with considerable force…the back of the skull broke into pieces and pierced into the brain…causing the vampire to slump bonelessly to the ground.

"That should keep him busy healing himself for about an hour," explained Xander. "A vampire can be killed through a wooden stake plunged into the heart, or decapitation. Holy water, if enough of its used will do the job as well, its like concentrated Hydrochloric acid to skin. A Cross or any symbol of faith can be used to ward off a vampire as well, if it comes in contact with it, it will also burn."

"Garlic?" asked Joyce almost hopefully.

"Not effective as you see in the movies," said Xander shaking his head, "might give them a violent sneeze or two though."

"Silver?"

"A silver knife blessed by a priest would work, but then again any blessed bladed weapon would work," said Xander, "silver is only fatally useful against werewolves, though I haven't seen a werewolf yet, but I have read about them."

"Sunlight?"

"Instantly fatal to a vampire exposed to 'direct' sunlight," said Xander. "A vampire can stick to the shadows or stay inside buildings during the day to survive however."

"Guns?"

"Guns, rifles and modern ballistic weaponry as they are now are useless against vampires, shoot it in areas that are normally fatal to humans and it would just laugh at you," said Xander ruefully, but then brightened, "I have had a few ideas to correct the problem, as its not a problem of damage done but more the type of ammunition. The lead and metal in a bullet does injure a vampire but not appreciably or quickly enough to matter. I'll get back to you on that."

"So unless I'm good with a bladed weapon and martial arts I'm pretty much…easy prey," said Joyce uncomfortably.

"Yes, a vampire is generally four times as fast and strong as a human, but there are defenses normal people have against the supernatural that they are not even aware of, it's how a lot of people remain ignorant and disbelieving of it until forcefully shown proof, as I've done with you tonight."

"What defenses are these?"

"The first is that a vampire cannot enter the threshold of a home without a verbal invitation from the soul living in it to enter, something to do with the soul and magic…arggh, I don't know, I'll refer you to someone later who explain the details better. Anyway, if you pray or are very spiritual it would also make a vampire think twice before attacking…faith is very damaging to a vampire."

Joyce frowned for a moment as if committing everything to memory and then said, "Magic?"

"Oh yeah," confirmed Xander with a nod, "it exists, just not as overtly as you are thinking. Magic is actually some form of quantum flux that hasn't been explained yet…I'll get back to you on that as well. But any of the flashy stuff needs considerable training and preparation to perform and you need to have a preexisting talent in it to dabble in it on that level. Witches, wizards, mages and wicca all exist and are out there, some good and some bad."

Xander stared down at the vampire and kneeled next to it, "This is also one reason why the supernatural largely goes undetected by science and the general public." He reached down and grabbed the head of the vamp and with a sharp twisting motion broke its neck. Joyce involuntarily gasped at the casual brutality Xander had just showed, she then reminded herself of what it was and that it wasn't human and would kill more if it was allowed to leave. Xander braced his foot against the shoulder of the vamp and pulled…the head of the vampire came off with the tearing sound of flesh and sinew before the entire body suddenly turned black and started to combust in front of their eyes into shadowy ash with an unearthly scream and whooshing sound.

Xander stood and brushed off his hands. "The bodies combust as the demon inhabiting the dead body is forced to leave, as technically, a vampire is a forceful unnatural presence in our dimension, it's not a native here, as such nature reclaims equilibrium and the body is reduced to what it should be."

"Ash," nodded Joyce in understanding, but then looked at Xander sharply. "Why are you telling me this? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful. But what does all this have to do with Dawn?"

"Do you recall the unpleasantness of his evening?" asked Xander evenly.

"Of course, everyone…my goodness…how did I miss that?" asked Joyce in wonder and disbelief.

"Its as I said, until your mind is forcefully opened to the possibility of the supernatural you remain blind to the true world beneath the surface," said Xander stoically. "I don't have all the details yet, but tonight a mage of some sort cast a spell that turned everyone into their Halloween costumes…"

And with that Xander spent the next half an hour speaking of the night. Joyce said that she herself had dressed as an Arabian belly dancer and could now even recall memories and dances that she had never actually learned. Xander then told Joyce of his and Dawn's choice in costumes…and she made the correct deduction.

"You've got Data's and Seven's memories?" she gasped.

Xander confirmed and explained Q's visit from the Trek Universe and with trepidation said that the omnipotent being had altered himself and Dawn to support the memories and experiences and knowledge that either had, as no normal human could hold that amount of knowledge without going mad. Mrs S reaction to seeing her transformed younger daughter emerge from behind a nearby crypt where she had been waiting was one for the record books.

It finally overtaxed even the stubbornness of a Summers and she fainted.

"Just great," groused Dawn. "C'mon, let's get her back to the house." Xander picked up the prone Mrs S and the two 24th C. hybrids walked out of the cemetery and into the night.

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_A/N: Here's a YAHF of my own. I've never seen Xander dress as Data in any other fic, and Dawn is included due to the temporal presence of the future spell by the monks to give the Key of Dagon human form. Q altered the spell to bring the human Dawn fully into herself during the Chaos Spell performed by Ethan Rayne during Halloween three years earlier. Temporal Mechanics are a bitch ain't it? So what space opera or sci-fi world should I cross this over with? _


	2. Chapter 2 Lie to Me

Chapter Two 

The Library of Sunnydale High School had seen many things; both mundane and extraordinary come to pass within it; vampire attacks, Hellbeasts, the rise of the Master, massive fights, magical rituals to name but a few, most ominously it was situated right above the focal point of the Hellmouth itself. The Hellmouth, or Boca Del Infernio, as the Spanish called the place, was an area of powerful mystical convergence or in more scientific terms, was the area where the walls between dimensions was at its weakest.

On a more mundane point, it also had the most extensive collection of books on the occult and paranormal anywhere in the State of California. This was largely due to the fact that the Librarian was actually the guide, mentor, and trainer of the current Slayer…or as they liked to call themselves, Watchers.

Watchers were actually agents of an organization based out of England, whose sole mandate since the dawn of the written word and since the creation of the first Slayer, were to fight against the supernatural threats against Humanity.

Rupert Giles, Buffy Summers' current Watcher, was a man in his middle years with receding light brown hair and wearing his typical semi-formal combination of tweed jacket and pants that he favored for presenting the right image to the students and to his Slayer charge…that of a unflappable mentor and guide. It was an image that he was currently struggling to maintain.

The arrival of Ethan Rayne, his old former friend and Chaos mage, and his Halloween stunt had awakened a side of Rupert that he thought he had long ago put behind him. His days as 'Ripper' a nickname he had well and truly earned in his rebellious youth as a powerful warlock, were filled with memories he'd rather forget, but the mere sight of Ethan Rayne had brought out the 'Ripper' in him at the drop of a hat.

Rupert, currently had his most favored pair of glasses off in his hand and rubbing at the bridge of his nose in weariness, contemplation and sheer amazement. He was standing at one of the main study desks in the library and in front of him, sitting on the other side were three people. Three people who were the most effected by Ethan Rayne's stunt of last night.

The first was Joyce Summers, Buffy's mother, who was at the moment understandably angry with him, for a whole host of reasons. The first and most obvious was the fact that her eldest daughter was supernaturally destined to be the hunter of all things that go bump in the night, and that no one had thought to inform her sooner. Of course, her ire was even greater when she realized that her younger daughter knew all about it.

Sitting next to Joyce, was Alexander Harris, or as he preferred to be known, Xander. He was sitting with perfect posture and staring at Rupert with an easy grin. Xander was one of Buffy's best friends and one of the main reasons she was alive and he still had a Slayer, a fact that made Rupert respect the young man considerably, and tolerate the foibles and good natured teasing that Xander saw fit to heap upon him. On the surface he looked no different than normal, but now Rupert knew the truth…Xander was infinitely different…all thanks to Ethan Rayne and a mischievous omnipotent being (Rupert still found it hard to believe that Q actually existed, but the results were right in front of him in plain sight). The young man…no android, was now host to the massive intelligence that was Data from the TV show Star Trek. As a demonstration, Xander had rattled off in quick succession all the elements on the periodic table and even those that weren't yet discovered; he had taken a pen and with machine like precision and speed drawn an engineering diagram for a pebble-bed nuclear reactor.

"I could've done a warp core, anti-grav emitter or even a Quantum Slipstream Drive, but you've no basis for understanding it," said Xander nonchalantly with a shrug. He then proceeded to show what an android was physically capable of by taking an inch thick wooden broom, breaking it half with just a twist, putting the two pieces together, breaking them into fourths, he managed to get up to eights, but by then there was not enough room to give leverage to break.

Sitting next to Xander, was Dawn Summers, who now looked to be as old as Xander, and was the most conspicuous in her 'transformation' as it were, from last night's events. She was wearing a long overcoat to cover the silver gray bodysuit she wore but it did nothing to hide the 'of all things' actual Borg cybernetic implants over her left eye and right ear and others that were in her body and the 'nanoprobes' in her blood stream. Rupert would most definitely have to get himself up to speed on everything by watching the show.

"This is amazing," said Jenny Calendar, the computer teacher of Sunnydale High, a self styled Techno-pagan with a focus on fusing magic with technology, and his girlfriend. Jenny was standing next to Dawn and examined the optical implant intently. Dawn herself was rather uncomfortable with the close scrutiny. "Just please don't go and assimilate anyone."

"Oh, don't worry, Ms Calendar," breathed Dawn. "I'd rather not have the Borg in this Universe."

"Just making sure," said Jenny with a grin. Rupert now turned his gaze to the rather stunned and shocked members of the 'Scoobies' as they affectionately called themselves. One of them was his primary reason for being in the cultural mélange that was California, and the other was a close friend of his Slayer and a budding witch.

Buffy and Willow were sitting at another table further away and was seemingly content to just stare at Xander and Dawn in mute shock. Rupert rather believed that their attention was not so much on Xander as on Dawn. He rather believed they couldn't get over the fact of Dawn's rather obvious supreme feminine charms that had developed with the massive magical growth spurt; if he had seen her in his 'Ripper' youth he would have said 'Not something you roll out of the bed, mate!'

It was at this point that Buffy finally regained use of her senses after she had seen and heard the story. She walked up to him and said in an irate tone of voice and a heavy glare, "Just where is this Q, so I can beat the snot out of him!"

Xander coughed at hearing that. "Buff, you have to be kidding!" he said with an astonished gaze at the Slayer. "This is Q, we're talking about. You know…from that all powerful race of beings that think of Galaxies as Frisbees and so forth…"

"I don't care," said the Slayer stubbornly.

There was a flash of white light and suddenly Buffy disappeared…only to reappear a few feet away in the center of the library and facing opposite her what Rupert guessed to be Q. The being was presenting himself as a mischievous looking human in his middle ages and wearing what looked to be old barehanded boxing attire from the eighteenth century and those outrageous overgrown moustaches that the men were so fond of in that era.

"You want to challenge me, Slayer?!" mocked Q in a pompous accent, brandishing his fists in an over the top boxing stance at Buffy and dancing on his feet. "Marquee of Queensbury rules it is!"

Xander groaned and placed his head in his hands in response to this outrageousness from the powerful being, while Dawn merely raised an eyebrow but Rupert could see her irritation in the set of her jaw.

Buffy blinked at her sudden and ridiculous opponent. She had snapped into a horse stance ready to fight on instinct but once the situation became clear she lowered her arms.

"What? Are you yielding Slayer?" said Q pompously, stopping his ridiculous dancing on the spot and raised an eyebrow. Buffy was clearly waging an internal battle against the Slayer facet in her personality, and with knowledge of Q's power visibly yielded by stepping back. "Good, because your dear friend Xander was right…Galaxy's as Frisbees," Q had a contemplative look about him, "now there's an interesting idea…naaah, too chaotic, but I like your style Xander, my boy!"

There was a flash of light and Buffy was back to her original position and now Q was dressed somewhat normally in his persona as a Starfleet Captain and now stood at the head of the table where Dawn, Joyce and Xander were sitting.

"Now isn't this an interesting ensemble," said Q with a grin. "You Scoobies are more fun in a day than Jean-Luc Picard and his lot ever were in a year…such amusement was had last night. It's a huge improvement on the normal goings on this Universe, let me tell you."

"Uh…Q?" said Willow nervously, who had walked over. "Can I ask a question?"

"You've just asked one, but I'll allow another," said Q enigmatically.

"If you're real, the Trek Universe is real, then how come it's a TV show here?"

"The TV show is my attempt to…influence multiple Universes to get their acts together, so to speak," said Q with a grin. "I'll not bore you with the nitty gritty of how it's done, but yes, what you see in the show is a narration of actual events in a Universe that the Q Continuum considers…an ideal one."

"A Utopia to strive for?" asked Rupert.

"Yes, and no," answered Q, "to achieve Utopia is unrealistic, not even the Q Continuum has achieved that. There will always be a need for chaos, war, death and suffering. Everything is about Balance, you know this most of all Rupert."

"But now I must get to the point of my being here. The first matter is that of Dawn, she needs a Borg regeneration alcove…" Q snapped his fingers and handed a large envelope to Xander with his other. "I've just expanded the space in the basement of the Summers home and an alcove is there waiting for you, Dawn, it draws power via a Zero-Point Energy Tap and can be moved if so desired."

"Impressive," said Xander with a grin, pocketing the note.

"That is so cool, we've only begun to theorize about how to harness vacuum energy," said Willow excitedly.

"The second matter is that Xander must go the address I gave him on that envelope and use what is inside," said Q, staring at the android. "All will become clear when he gets there."

"Ok," said Xander with a frown of confusion at the vagueness.

"And lastly…_and I can't believe that I am pandering to those lowly fools_," said Q, looking like he had swallowed something foul, "is that no matter what happens in the future…that the vampire known as Angel and his demon ego, Angelus may not be harmed by either Xander or Dawn…they can defend themselves if he ever attacks them but they must only repel him, not kill…everyone else has fair game."

"That is a rather worrying declaration," said Jenny, looking at Q in curiosity.

"Ah, ah, ah," said Q with a lop sided grin, tipping his forefinger remonstratively at her. "I can't tell you anything. Oh, by the way, I suggest you come clean with the group, sooner rather than later. Listening to those prickly old fools will make everything turn bad very quickly."

"Oh well, I've done what I came for, ta ta," he said and with a wave and a flash of white light disappeared.

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As it turned out, the address on the envelope was a familiar one. It was that of Calax Research and Development or CRD, a high tech computer research and development firm that had been a large employer in Sunnydale, until it went pop when the IT bubble burst about two years ago. It was a place that firmly entrenched in the memories of the Scooby Gang however; as it was also the spot that the demon Moloch had rallied his hypnotized human followers (among whom were a very embarrassed Willow) by spreading his influence through the Internet. It was only thanks to Ms Calendar and a few of her Technomagic contacts around the world that had allowed them to isolate the demon from the Internet and trap it in the robotic body it had built for itself…allowing Buffy to smash the robot demon to pieces…finally destroying it. Afterward the place had been shut down again.

The afternoon following Q's visit Xander stood at the main gate to the deserted CRD campus, along with Dawn and the rest of the Scoobies. The campus had a footprint of about a hectare and two large buildings were situated on it. To the West was the Research wing; a three-story building that spans the length of the campus, while to the northeast and adjoining it was a large rectangular empty two-story warehouse. A parking lot and various driveways snaked around the campus and the eight foot high fence was still as imposing as they remembered it.

"This brings back so-not-pleasant memories," moaned Willow. "Why would Q want you to come here Xander?"

"Let's find out," said Xander and opened the envelope. Inside was a set of keys and an electronic keycard in addition to a grouping of certificates of sorts. Xander pulled it out and started to read…and gasped.

"What is it?" asked Dawn.

"It's the deed to everything," said Xander faintly, gesturing towards the CRD campus.

"You're joking," said Buffy in astonishment. Xander handed it to Giles who examined it as well and promptly returned it and started polishing his glasses.

"Xander is correct," said Giles shortly.

Xander couldn't help but wonder what was Q's true purpose behind doing this. This was a clear if not so subtle instruction from the powerful being…_use your newfound knowledge_, _help yourselves_. He pulled out the keys and undid the locks on the gate and pushed it open, allowing the Scoobies inside before locking up behind them. They decided to head towards the warehouse first.

Inside the vast open space was still all the equipment that the followers of Moloch had used to make him a robotic body, in addition all the equipment and production lines was still left over the CRD's heydays. There was Oscilloscopes, resonance scanners, silicon refiners, laser cutters to image the computer chips, tooling benches, metallurgy presses, and the list went on and on.

"This really makes me appreciate what all those followers of Moloch had to do to make him a robot body," said Ms Calendar.

"Well," said Xander, clapping his hands together and rubbing them eagerly, "it's only an late twentieth century tech base, but between Dawn and me, I think we can get it up to twenty second century in no time…and with a bit of luck and hard work…twenty fourth in perhaps a year. You up for it Dawnie?"

"Oh yes," said Dawn eagerly.

Giles coughed in response to this statement of Xander. "Uh…are you considering doing, what I think you are going to do?"

"If you mean turn out technologies that will help benefit the human race as a whole, then yes," said Xander with a gleam in his eye.

"I hate to be the rotten egg here," said Giles with a sigh. "And I am all for it, but have you considered the larger ramifications of introducing such advanced technologies to the world."

"What do you mean Giles?" asked Buffy looking confused, "I mean, wouldn't those Replicator thingies be the end to world hunger and so forth."

"Yes it would," allowed Giles, "but consider how many people would be out of a job if, say for instance, Xander obsoletes certain prevalent technologies today with more advanced ones from the future. Then there is the fact that I fear for his life if he introduces anything that threatens the oil states mandate on energy and plastics."

"You believe they'll send assassins after me?" asked Xander with raised eyebrows.

"Yes," nodded Giles darkly, "if not that, then they'll tie you up with patent litigation or threaten governments with oil embargoes if they use the new technologies…eventually it could be a catalyst for World War 3!"

"Then we'll have to be very careful about it," said Xander with a thoughtful expression. "Instead of just throwing out the new tech into the market, we could begin to license subtle improvements in existing technology towards existing industries. Meaning they're still in business, and we get the license royalties…of course, we would keep all the super advanced tech to ourselves."

"That could work," nodded Giles, "but first things first, you'd need to establish a company of your own to be able to do that."

"Not just me," said Xander, shaking his head and smiling at the assembled Scoobies, "all of us."

"All of us?" said Ms Calendar in astonishment.

"Yeah, you don't think I could do this 'elevating humanity' thing by myself, do you?" he laughed. "Dawn, Willow and I will do the tech and brain work, that's what we're good at. Giles and Ms Calendar, I'd need you two to do admin on the side. Buffy, I don't know what you could contribute, but I think that when the money starts rolling in…and it will…that you could do with some hazard pay for your Slayer duties, and you can advise on what we can produce to make your job safer and easier. I've already got a few ideas of my own that I want to bounce off you and Giles. There's also the fact that we need to secure this campus from any invading baddies, vampire, demon or human."

"So what do you guys say?" said Xander with a big sloppy grin. The Scoobies looked at each other with considering glances.

"We're in," they chorused.

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Three weeks later found Xander sitting with a satisfied expression in the student's lounge in Sunnydale High. Yesterday, word had come through that the Scooby Gang's Company, ostensibly named DWX Innovations Pty (Ltd) had been registered and could finally start business. The start-up capital had come in thanks to Data's historical database and some creative computing on the Internet. Xander didn't know who Ernesto Escebedo was besides a really big time Drug Lord in Columbia, but he was sure that suddenly finding himself without a penny to his name in his (supposedly secure) Cayman Islands account would cause a bit of a ruckus down there. Of course, there was no way that the money confiscation could be traced back to DWX, unless there was another android or Borg out there in the world who could backtrace an electronic path after breaking through the best Borg and Starfleet data encryption available to the 24th Century.

In the meantime, Xander, Dawn and Willow had already begun the process of tooling up the equipment in the warehouse as necessary. It was surprisingly easy in retrospect after Willow had happened on the idea that Dawn could instruct her nanoprobes to 'assimilate' the machinery, reconfigure it and self-destruct after they had done their job. In this way, the DWX warehouse became the most modern lab on the planet.

The first job they had tackled was the all important campus security issue. A lot of the basic building blocks were there already thanks to Moloch's followers…it was just an issue of going further with it. Manhole covers were sealed, tunnels leading under the campus were blocked off, the fences were hardened and placed with barbed wire, security cameras were mounted with circa twenty second century Phase pistols for internal security.

For vampire defense, floodlights were installed and reconfigured to emit light frequencies to match that of the Sun itself, while it wouldn't be as effective as the real thing it would be extremely painful for a vampire to be exposed to it. The sprinkler system that watered the lawn now fed off a separate tank that they had a local Priest come in and bless.

Of course, the first weakness that they had, that would most difficult to overcome was power supply. To build a fusion reactor from scratch was not an easy task at all and the government regulated the raw materials required. They'd need at least a fusion reactor to begin working on the really cool technologies such as, Anti-Matter generators, Matter Transporters, Industrial Replicators, 24th C Phasers and weapons. In the meantime they had supplemented their power requirements by building relatively basic Tesla Generators (which harnessed energy directly from the planet's electro-magnetic field) and while it would last theoretically forever, the amount of raw power it supplied was not enough.

Xander shrugged off his musings at the sound of the bell and headed to History Class. Despite the fact that he could probably teach the class now, or take his SATs right now and come up with a perfect score, it would look too suspicious and would attract way too much attention from the School and educational authorities. So he decided to play the role of 'Xander turning over a new leaf when it comes to education' and visibly begin to apply himself, and slowly and subtly begin to increase his GPA over a period of a year.

He sat down in the desk in front of Buffy and Willow and the class began. This particular week they were dealing with the French Revolution and the reasons for its instigation.

"Well, it's seems just like Louis the Fifteenth was a really weak king," said a guy that Xander couldn't remember a name for.

"That's fair enough," conceded the teacher, "Uh, any other impressions?"

Cordelia decided to speak up, and look out world.

"I just don't see why everyone's picking on Marie Antoinette," said Cordelia plaintively, "I can so relate to her." Xander rolled his eyes at that. "She worked really hard to look that good, and people just don't appreciate that sort of effort. And I know all the peasants were depressed…"

"I think you mean 'oppressed'," countered Xander glibly.

"Whatever," said Cordelia unconcerned, "they were cranky. So they're like, 'Let's lose some heads'. Uhhh, that's fair. And Marie Antoinette cared about them. She was gonna let them have cake!"

"Yes, well," said the teacher looking astonished at the comments from the Queen C of Sunnydale High, "that's an interesting perspective."

"Um, anyone else like to comment?" said the Teacher.

"I think another of the main reasons it happened was because the king ignored his economic advisor of the time; Francois Quesnay, who suggested reforms that would get more money in the poor's pockets and cause the monarchy to be less frivolous in it's spending," said Xander idly. The class was rather stunned at this very well thought out opinion coming from the class clown.

"Wow, excellent point, Xander," said the Teacher, "you opened a book I take it?"

"All that hanging out in the library has to be good for something," he said, shrugging.

"Good…" the bell rang at this point signaling break.

Xander followed Willow and Buffy out into the hall and it seemed they had done a note discussion behind his back because they immediately broke midway into a conversation.

"I don't know," said Buffy, "I don't think so. They seemed pretty friendly."

"Who's friendly?" asked Xander curiously.

"No one," said Buffy hurriedly.

"Angel and a girl," said Willow.

"Willow, do we have to be in total share mode?" asked Buffy in irritation at her friend.

"If Angel is doing something wrong. I wanna know," said Xander, Q's little hint about Angel coming to the forefront. They headed into the student's lounge again and took seats on the comfy couches. Buffy didn't say anything in response and just looked upset. "Aw, you need cheering up. And I know just the thing. I say we take a night off from DWX work and do a crazed dance party at the Bronze."

"I dunno," said Buffy, crossing her arms looking even more depressed.

"Very calm dance party at the Bronze?" asked Xander with a grin. Buffy only gave him a glum look. "Moping at the Bronze?" he asked in response with a heavy sigh.

"I'd suggest a box of Oreos dunked in apple juice, but maybe she's over that phase," came an unfamiliar voice from behind them. Xander turned in his seat to regard a young man who looked like a Senior, with short black hair an average looking build, wearing casual shirt over a jeans with an easy going expression on his face. Buffy uncrossed her arms to also look behind her.

"Ford?" she asked in astonishment, clearly recognizing the young man.

"Hey, Summers!" greeted Ford. Buffy bounced out of her seat happily and embraced the relative stranger. "How ya been?"

"Oh my, what are you doing here?" she asked in astonishment.

"Matriculating," said Ford. "I'm finishing out my senior year at Sunnydale High. Dad got transferred."

"This is great!" enthused Buffy.

"I'm glad you think so," said Ford with a grin. "I didn't think you'd remember me." Xander kept a neutral façade but inwardly was slightly miffed that Buffy didn't think to do introduction first then catch up with an old friend.

"Remember you? Duh! We only went to school together for seven years. You were my giant fifth grade crush," laughed Buffy.

"So! You two know each other?" asked Xander pointedly.

"Oh! Sorry," she turned to Xander and Willow, "I'm sorry. This is Ford…um, Billy Fordham this is Xander and Willow!" The newly acquainted group went to sit down while Xander and Willow exchanged perfunctionary greetings with Ford. "Ford and I went to Hemery together in LA." She turned back to Ford. "And now you're here. For real?"

"Dad got the transfer, and boom, he just dragged me outta Hemery and put me down here," explained Ford.

"This is great! Well, I mean, it's hard, sudden move, all your friends, delicate time, very emotional, but let's talk about me!" Xander watched as of all things Buffy suddenly puts a hand on the new guy's knee; talk about a rapid swing in emotions. _The females of any species are often impossible to predict _opinioned Data. "This is great!"

"So you two were sweeties in firth grade?" asked Willow with a cutey smile.

"Not even, Ford wouldn't give me the time of day," contradicted Buffy unexpectedly.

"Well, I was a manly sixth-grader," stated Ford sarcastically. "I couldn't bother with someone that young."

"It was terrible," said Buffy intently, "I moped over you for months. Sitting in my room, listening to Divinyl's song 'I touch myself.'" Xander inwardly choked at the connotations of that statement. Buffy looked slightly horrified that she had said that and with a quick look at Xander and Willow said, "Of course, I had no idea what it was about." Ford for his part looked a bit nervous and uncomfortable at the unwittingly released info. "Hey, are you busy tonight? We're going to the Bronze, it's the local club and you have to come."

"I'd love to!" said Ford, "but if you guys already had plans…would I be imposing?"

"Only in the literal sense," said Xander with a sigh.

"Okay then! I gotta go find the admissions office," he got up from his seat, "get my papers in order."

"Well, you know what," said Buffy standing up and taking his arm, "I'll take you there, and I'll see you guys in French."

"It was good to meet you," said Ford, walking away with Buffy.

"Damn," said Xander with a frown, "and I was going to ask her how the portable Sun flashlight worked out for her last night."

"So you'll ask her later," said Willow unconcerned, then she got an expression on her face similar to one where she figured out how to make the flashlight in the first place, "oh, so that's what that song was about."

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The Bronze 

This was the only club in the town of Sunnydale; as such it was a hangout for all the teenagers and young adults in town. It had been converted from an old large warehouse in the Industrial district and was in fact not that far from DWX Innovations. The interior of the Bronze consisted of two floors; the lower floor where the most of the space was allocated to the dance floor and stage for any live band that came touring through town (since this was California, there were no shortage of those around); in addition was the bar in the back (nothing alcoholic was served), various tables and couches surrounding the dance floor, pool tables and other entertainment devices. The upper floor was mostly a balcony of sort, which overlooked the lower floor and allowed for relative privacy between couples sitting at dinner tables for two.

Xander, Willow and Ford were gathered around a pool table playing a game of nine-ball. Xander was feeling a bit disgruntled, he had wanted to bring Dawn along as well, but Mrs S vetoed the idea immediately. Mrs S had stated that while Dawn looked like she could go to Bronze, had the memories and experience and collective knowledge of the Borg, it didn't mean that her emotional maturity had suddenly shot up as well, technically and according to the law, Dawn was still twelve. Of all of them, Dawn had been spending the most time at DWX, she couldn't go to back to school looking like she did and Mrs S had to pull her out and tell the State that she was going to do home schooling (for what it was worth, as Dawn could just as easily do her SATs now and get a perfect score like Xander).

Finally, Buffy arrived at their table after having gone home to check in and get dressed appropriately for the evening.

"Ford! You made it!" said Buffy with a grin.

"Wasn't hard to find," said Ford easily.

"How's Dawn?" asked Xander casually.

"Re…sleeping," said Buffy, catching herself in time from saying 'Regenerating'.

"Good," nodded Xander looking satisfied, "she's been working hard lately."

"Oh, Buffy, Ford was just telling us about the ninth grade beauty contest and, the, uh swimsuit competition," said Willow in turn.

"Ford! Stop that!" complained Buffy in half-irritation. "The more people you tell, the more I have to kill."

"You can't touch me Summers," snarked Ford with a half grin, "I know all your darkest secrets."

"Wanna bet?" said Xander challengingly.

"I'm gonna get a drink. Ford, try not to talk," said Buffy with a grin and walked off toward the bar. Xander lined up for a ricochet shot and carefully tipped the cue ball with his poolcue, the white ball moved exactly like he wanted and almost caressed the Six ball, causing it to slip sideways into the side pocket.

"Good shot," said Ford, looking impressed, but then his eye seemed to catch something. Willow noticed this as well.

"That's Angel," she said. Xander looked up from addressing the Seven ball, and indeed there was the vampire with a soul, all dressed in his usual dark ensemble and talking intently to Buffy; who for her part seemed slightly apprehensive and unhappy with the her vampire paramour.

"He's Buffy's beau," said Xander neutrally.

"He's not in school right? He looks older than her."

"You're not wrong," replied Xander with hint of disapproval in his voice.

Buffy approached them again and it seemed had forgotten to get something to drink, or something Angel had said made her forget about it.

"Didn't want that soda after all?" asked Ford.

"Not thirsty," said Buffy shortly. _Oh dear_, thought Xander, _trouble in paradise. Looks like Angel said the wrong thing with regard to his rendezvous with some girl last night._

"Hey, Angel," said Willow, frowning at the pool table, considering her next shot.

"Hi," said Ford neutrally.

Buffy turned to Angel and said, "This is Ford, we went to school together in LA."

"Nice to meet you," said Angel, shaking Ford's hand.

"Whoa! Cold hands!" said Ford with a grin after the shake.

"So you're here visiting Buffy?"

"No, I'm actually here to stay, just moved down," said Ford.

"Hey, Angel? Do you wanna play?" said Willow after playing her turn.

"You know, it's getting rather crowded in here, I'm a little hot," said Buffy to the group and turned to Ford. "You wanna take a walk?"

"Um, sure that'd be nice," said Ford with a grin.

"Okay then…see you tomorrow," she said to the group and led Ford out of the Bronze.

"Good night," said Angel with a frown, considering the young man leaving with Buffy.

When they were out of earshot, Xander said, "Okay, once more with the tension."

"He just moved here?" asked Angel intently.

"Yeah," said Xander with an equal frown, "and moving a bit fast, in my opinion."

"Well, Angel, we could still play," said Willow hopefully, she moved the rack into position and when she looked up again the vampire was gone.

"See, you made him do that thing when he's gone," complained Willow.

"Angel comes and goes as he pleases Willow," said Xander with a sigh, breaking the set of balls with strong strike of his cue. "Did you manage to ask Giles about what thickness a stake must be that can dust a mosquito?" Mosquito was the newly adopted vernacular code among the Scoobies when talking about vampires in public.

"Oh yes," said Willow with a smile, "it doesn't matter, there are a few accounts in the Watcher's Dairies when a Chosen (code for a Slayer) had improvised when she was caught unawares by a mosquito and used a pencil, of course she had to angle it properly or it would have broken on the chestbone of her target. It seems that the heart need only be traumatically pierced by a wooden object for the desired effect."

"Excellent, then we just need to find a suitable calibre delivery platform," said Xander, in his mind's eye Data showed him the various possibilities that were available. "I think I've got it, the HK UMP-45, the rear of the bullet would need to be reinforced with a suitable metal to propel it, and it would need to be jacketed so the wood would retain its shape as it travels through the rifled barrel…could it work?"

"Only one way to find out is to try, we'd need Giles to organize getting our hands on a few," said Willow. "I think he can justify it to the Watcher's Council, I mean he gets all the normal medieval weaponry from them, its about time we moved into the twentieth century as well with regards to weapons. I just know though that Buffy's not gonna like this. She hates guns."

"That's the Chosen in her talking," said Xander dismissively. "The Chosen wants to beat up on something, a gun doesn't let it do that. Only using bladed weapons, a stake, and fists while satisfying in a 'grrrr' way, is not efficient and you risk too much injury doing that."

"When are you going home, Xander?" asked Willow abruptly and intently, clearly hoping to catch her friend off guard. Xander raised an eyebrow and gave her an unimpressed stare.

"My home is in the DWX building now," said Xander in a tone that brooked no further argument; he had contracted a renovation company two weeks ago to put in a basic bachelor's apartment adjoining next to largest office in the building, a very nice pad if he didn't say so himself with all the necessities and luxuries he could ask for. "I'm not going back to those…drunkards." Referring to his abusive, alcoholic parents. "I'm afraid of what I'll do if they start in on me again. Data is working on the legalities of getting myself emancipated. So please Willow, I appreciate your concern as a friend, but I will not return to that house."

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The next day passed uneventfully for Xander at least, he had approached his idea to Giles during break of modifying the .45 ACP ammunition for the HK UMP-45 sub-machine gun to be lethal to vampires with a shot to the heart. He had drawn a diagram of the bullet to help explain.

"The jacket will flake off in mid-air on its way to the target," said Xander, drawing his idea out.

"Remarkable," said Giles with a frown, studying the diagram and looking deep in thought. "There have been similar attempts in the past by the Council to modify ammunition to work in this fashion, but none were successful or as reliable as the old methods. And I also think it's because of the blending of metallurgy and woodwork, that maybe made it impractical for large scale manufacture, it's rather precise work, plus how would you explain to a munitions manufacturer that you wanted a wooden bullet?"

"Point taken," said Xander with a grin.

"Not to mention the laws and red tape in California for guns are quite strict, if I do this through _legal_ channels, it could be a few months before we get the weapons from the Watcher's Council," said Giles.

"Are you saying what I think you're saying G-man?" said Xander with an astonished expression.

"I'm not saying anything," said Giles nonchalantly, "it's just I see the merits of this, and if it means we get this sooner rather than later, then I am willing to go…the extra mile, so to speak."

"Sure, go ahead G-man," said Xander nonplussed.

"I'm also curious," said Giles, "if you can already produce these Phase pistols, why are you bothering still making standard kinetic weapons?"

"A Phase pistol is rather hard to explain away if there are any witnesses to the fights," said Xander in disappointment, "I don't think even Hellmouth blindness and ignorance will cover the use of a Phase pistol. On a standard patrol with the UMP it can still be written off as 'gangs on PCP' fighting each other. If we have to go after a big bad or extremely nasty critter, then sure, Phase pistols for all around."

"Oh, well, that's rather good thinking," said Giles, "excuse me." He headed off to where a group of students had beckoned him for help. At this point Willow entered the library doors looking jumpy and extremely nervous.

"Willow, we talked about this coffee thing," said Xander sadly, "no more than a cup in the morning for you."

"Oh, it's n-not that," said Willow flushing, "I found something weird about Ford."

"Oh?" he said, inviting elaboration.

"He's not in the school records, he hasn't been registered," said Willow worriedly. "Not even his grades have been transferred from Hemery."

"That is weird," agreed Xander, "if he's not in the system, then technically he shouldn't be here, but yet he is here…why?"

"I dunno, I also found only one other thing connected to Ford, an address in Sunnydale, Angel asked me to check it out tonight with him and…"

"Say no more," said Xander abruptly, "I'll be there."

"Thanks," said Willow, looking relieved.

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That evening found Xander, Willow and Angel walking to the address she had managed to hack. It was near the housing suburbs of Sunnydale, but more towards the center of town. They entered the alley that held the entrance.

"Here it is, the only thing I could track down related to Ford, The Sunset Club," said Willow pointing to the neon sign declaring the location of the club hanging over their heads and the sunken doorway below it. "Still didn't find anything incriminating."

"He leaves no paper trail, no records, that's incriminating enough," said Angel intently.

"I'll have to agree with Angel on this one, I didn't even know this club existed, and in a town this small news of a new hangout joint for our crowd would've been hot stuff," said Xander.

Angel knocked on the door. A viewport opened and the eyes of the doorman appeared.

"We're friends of Ford," said Angel shortly. The doorman nodded and opened the door for them. They emerged into the Sunset Club and had to walk down a long set of stairs onto the only and main floor of the Club. The décor was gloomy and Xander estimated they were at least a few meters below ground level, he focused his vision into different wavelengths to compensate for the chaotic light conditions and got a clear look at the dimensions of the place.

"Boy, we blend right in," said Willow oddly, everyone was dressed to a theme, and he and Willow were sticking out. The fact that Angel blended in gave you a good idea as to what that theme was.

"Yeah, it's also a very odd place for a club, the dimensions are consistent with a bomb shelter," said Xander with a raised eyebrow.

"Let's look around," said Angel, looking at Xander strangely as they separated.

Xander and Willow passed a man standing in a coffin dressed as a stereotypical movie vampire, who cheerfully greets them with a wave. Xander waved back with strange look at the man.

"Are you noticing a theme here?" asked Xander with suspicious eyes.

"As in 'vampires', yay!"

A young woman also dressed as a vampire approached them at this point, she had bushy curly blonde hair and had a nametag 'Chanterelle' on her.

"You guys are newbies. I can tell," said Chanterelle with a polite grin.

"Oh no, we come here all the time," disagreed Willow nervously.

"Don't be ashamed," said Chanterelle intently, "it's cool that you're open to it. We welcome anyone who's interested in the Lonely Ones." Angel approached at this point, having completed a circuit of the club.

"The Lonely Ones?" asked Willow in confusion.

"Vampires," said Angel shortly.

"We usually call them nasty, pointy, bitey ones," disagreed Xander with narrowed eyes.

"So many people have that misconception," argued Chantarelle, "but they who walk with the night are not interested in harming anyone. They are creatures above us. Exalted!"

"You're a fool," said Angel bluntly. Xander sighed and gave the vampire a quelling look.

"You don't have to be so confrontational about it," said Chanterelle in a huff, "other viewpoints than yours may be valid you know." She turned on her heels and walked away.

"You really are a people person, aren't you?" said Xander dryly.

"Now nobody's gonna talk to us," complained Willow.

"I've seen enough," said Angel, looking disgusted, "I've seen this type before. I mean, they're children making up bedtime stories of friendly vampires to comfort themselves in the dark."

"Is that so bad? I mean the dark can get pretty dark. Sometimes you need a story," said Willow in a small voice.

"These people don't know anything about vampires. What they are, how they live, how they dress…" argued Angel but was interrupted with a cough and a pointed look from Xander. Angel turned to regard a young man dressed exactly like him, walking past with an approving grin.

Angel coughed in embarrassment and led them back out the club. When they were back in the alley, Xander said, "But it still doesn't answer our question as to why, Ford, best old friend of the Slayer is hanging with a bunch of vampire wannabees."

"Something's up with him, you're right about that," agreed Willow.

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The next day Xander and Willow were waiting by the main stairs in the entrance hall of the school to catch up with Buffy. She finally showed up looking quite thoughtful as she descended the stairwell.

"Buffy!" said Willow looking guiltily in her direction. The Slayer seemed reluctant to face Willow but visibly steels herself and does it anyway. "Did, uh, Angel tell you about…?"

"He told me everything," said Buffy.

"I'm sorry we kept stuff from you," said Willow plaintively.

"It's okay," said Buffy smiling weakly at them.

"When Angel came to my room he was just really concerned for you, and we didn't wanna say anything in case we were wrong."

"Do you have any ideas on what Ford is up to?" asked Xander. "'Cos I'm fresh out."

"I'll found out," said Buffy resolutely and walked away. Xander and Willow watched her go sadly when something pertinent jumped out at him.

"Angel was in your bedroom?" he asked.

"Ours is a forbidden love," nods Willow, jokingly. Xander was more worried about the possible long- term consequences of the invitation.

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The aftermath of Buffy confronting Ford that night with his vampire buddies gave Xander a whole new line of thought with regards to what he should pursue with regards to DWX.

As it turned out, Ford had rigged the door to the Sunset Club so it could only be opened from the outside once it had closed, and since it was a bomb shelter there was no other way out for Buffy once he slammed the lid. She had been trapped with Ford and the delusional romantic vampire wannabees and apparently the idiot had made a deal with Spike to hand over the Slayer on platter for him in return for immortality and becoming a vampire. Ford even confessed that he had betrayed his wannabe friends to be cattle fodder and only he would become a vamp.

The only reason Buffy got out of this rather inescapable situation was that Spike had brought his vampire girlfriend Drusilla along. Buffy had managed to get the upper hand on her and threatened to plunge a stake into Drusilla if Spike didn't let all the people go in the trap.

Spike complied and Buffy slammed the door on them, locking them in. Unfortunately, in the fight, Ford had been knocked unconscious and was trapped inside with them. They had returned the following day to find the door forced open from the inside and a mauled and exsanguinated Ford.

Now why would a young man with his whole life ahead want to be a vampire and sacrifice others to get it? The answer, Ford had been dying of brain cancer, and wanted to live at all costs…and the fact that he gets ejected and a demon takes up residence in his body didn't really phase him.

It made Xander realize that there was more to be done than just reactors and phasers and killing vampires and demons. There were sick people's lives that could be saved with the medical knowledge stored within him and Dawn. They couldn't be Doctors, but they could give the information to those who were.

Ford was buried two days later and Buffy had tears in her eyes as she laid a bouquet of red roses on his grave in the late evening. She stepped away and walked back to a solemn Giles.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to say," said Buffy with a sniff.

"You needn't say anything," replied Giles.

"It'd be simpler if I could just hate him. I think he wanted me to. I think it made it easier for him to be the villain of the piece. Really he was just scared."

"Yes, I suppose he was."

"Nothing's simple anymore. I'm constantly trying to work it out. Who to love or hate. Who to trust. It's just like, the more I know, the more confused I get."

"I believe that's called growing up," said Giles with a soft smile.

"I'd like to stop then, okay?"

"I know the feeling," empathized Giles.

At that moment, Ford the vampire, just like he wanted to become, burst out of his grave and was about to attack Buffy. She merely stands there looking sadly at his demonic visage before the reports of a burst of gunfire reaches her ears. Ford the vampire staggered back as if kicked in the gut and looks up at Buffy before dissolving into ash with an unearthly scream.

"It worked," said Buffy, fingering her own stake, just in case it hadn't worked and turned to regard the figure of Xander in the distance lowering his slung UMP and hiding it behind a billowing black trenchcoat he was wearing. "Does it ever get easy?" she asked continuing their conversation.

"You mean life?"

"Yeah."

"What do you want me to say?" said Giles with a weary grin.

"Lie to me."

"Yes, it's terribly simple," said Giles in a pompous voice, as they join Xander and walk out of the cemetery, "the good guys are always stalwart and true. The bad guys are easily distinguished by their pointy horns and black hats, and we always defeat them and save the day. No one ever dies, and everybody lives happily ever after."

"Liar."

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_A/N: In the future I won't go through an episode in so much painstaking detail. It's just I liked this particular one for its message 'Things are not always black and white.' More Dawn in next chappie._


	3. Chapter 3 Chosen Two

Chapter Three – The Chosen Two 

A group of six figures were running as fast as they could through one of the many cemeteries in Sunnydale. They dodged among headstones, crypts and recently dug graves with a speed that was well beyond human…which in this town meant only thing, vampires. One of the six, a fledgling, and having just risen from his grave misjudged an evasion and tripped over a low headstone. The vampire had barely time to get up before its body jerked violently with the kinetic energy transfer of two wooden bullets piercing its heart in a perfectly spaced grouping…before it dissolved into ash.

The five remaining vampires were transfixed in fear and amazement for a moment, and that was all the time their hunter needed to send another of their number crumbling into ash. It spurred them on even faster and they were clearly gaining more distance from the Hunter. However, their relief turned to surprise when the oldest vampire in the group and the sire of them all, abruptly jerked as if something had hit him and he also turned to dust in front of their eyes.

They had been herded by the first hunter towards another; their realization did not save them as the three remaining members of the vampire nest crumbled to ashes after quick and precise bursts of gunfire from the two hunters.

Twenty meters away, emerging from the shadow cast by a tree in the full moon light was Xander dressed in what he termed his 'hunting clothes'; black jeans, shirt, a large trenchcoat for hiding and storing his weapons from sight and combat boots. His UMP was still held against his shoulder and the barrel was releasing small vapors of smoke. He lowered the weapon but still held it against his shoulder, ready to snap it up in an instant.

He advanced towards the rapidly dissipating ashes of the vampires still wary of getting ambushed by something else, though it was unlikely as his vision was registering every wavelength spectra and easily piercing the shadows…there was nothing. He met his fellow hunter; someone who most assuredly should not be doing this, well at least according to Buffy and Mrs S.

Dawn lowered her own UMP with a satisfied grin and nodded to Xander. "Nice shots."

"Your own marksmanship is impressive," said Xander.

"Seven had an extremely high visual acuity, so do I," said Dawn, shrugging. She had finally managed to synthesize herself another type of bodysuit. Seven of Nine had to wear them for medical reasons due to areas of her body where the Borg implants were exposed through her skin, and Dawn was no different. Her new bodysuit was a matt midnight black one that almost made her look like Catwoman from the Batman movies but instead of high heels and whip, she wore combat boots, a UMP, a few good old stakes slung in a belt around her shapely hips, and extra clips for her UMP.

"Well, I think we should go back to these guys' nest and see what we can liberate," said Xander. They tracked back to the vamp nest and found only clothes and a few mystical odds and ends like talismans a ring or two, which they would hand over to Giles the next day to identify and keep safe.

Returning to DWX they entered the office building and went down to the basement where there was a designated Armory room. This room held twenty UMPs in specially designed brackets mounted along the walls, and at one end was a table and workstation with different tools to custom the .45 ACP ammunition, they had also made a square hole in the wall on the other side and built an indoor firing range beyond it for calibration and testing purposes. They efficiently dismantled and cleaned the weapons before returning them to their specially designed slots in the wall.

Dawn removed her weapon belt before they left the room and took the elevator to the third floor. Walking down the long hallway to his own office, Xander was surprised to see Jenny Calendar standing patiently waiting next to the door.

"Ms Calendar?" said Dawn in confusion.

Xander could understand her reaction. Jenny Calendar had made herself rather distant from the Scoobies of late and in so doing distanced herself from DWX work. It had all culminated two weeks ago when she had been possessed by the dream demon Eghyon. A demon that had attacked all the people who had summoned it twenty years ago, Giles of all people, among them. As it turned out Giles had not always been the tweed wearing, stuffy Watcher…in his youth he had dabbled in powerful magicks and summoned demons with a group of four other similar minded rebels, Ethan Rayne, the man who was responsible for Halloween, among them.

Eghyon had returned at long last to fulfill the group of five's debt to it, and it had managed to kill three of them. It was only thanks to the Scooby Gang and Angel that Giles and Ethan Rayne had not managed to join the list of dead. However, despite the fact that they had managed to exorcise the demon from Ms Calender and kill it, the relationship between Giles and Ms Calendar had suffered a bad hit and she had distanced herself from him.

"Xander, Dawn," greeted Ms Calender hesitantly. "I was wondering if I could have a few moments of your time?"

"Certainly," said Xander opening the door to his office and leading them in. The office was that of the former CEO of CRD and its size and spaciousness reflected it as such. A large curved wooden desk and leather chair occupied the far right corner with a large computer monitor on one side and various folders stacked neatly on the other side.

Xander guided Ms Calendar to sit on the comfy sofas along one side of the office, while Dawn preferred to stay standing, but leaned against the large desk watching expectantly.

"Anything to drink?" asked Xander, heading over to small fridge in another corner of the office.

"Just some water, please." Xander handed her a glass and sat next to her. She took a sip and stared into the water for a few moments before sighing deeply. "I came tonight to give you this…" she handed an envelope, which she pulled out of her jacket to him. Xander opened it, looked inside and frowned in confusion.

"These are your paychecks since you joined DWX," said Xander.

"I want you to hold on to that until I explain myself," said Jenny with a troubled face. "If you are satisfied with my explanation then you decide whether you want to give it back to me or trust me."

"Okay," said Xander not really seeing what was going on here.

"I'm approaching you two, because you both have I believe…the perspective to understand my actions, and because neither of you have totally good or bad feelings towards Angel," said Jenny.

"What does Angel have to do with this?" asked Dawn curiously.

"Almost everything," said Jenny in response. "After the Eghyon debacle I distanced myself from Rupert and your group, he believed I did so because I blame him for my suffering at the hands of Eghyon. While that was true for a day or so afterwards, I quickly understood that Ripper and Giles were two very different people. The man I had grown attracted to would never do a demon summoning now or ever in the future. But I maintained my distance because my relationship with Giles was getting to a point where it would be difficult to conceal my true reasons for being here in Sunnydale."

"Go on," said Xander nodding.

"I really am a Computer Teacher at Sunnydale High, I've been interacting using my true personality with you since we met, but my job is a cover," said Jenny taking a sip. "My true name is Jana Kalderash, of the Kalderash Gypsy Clan."

"Wow," said Xander, referencing the clan within his occult database. Xander had started to read every occult book in Giles library whenever he had the free time, and Data had been compiling the database ever since they had merged on Halloween, also using Xander's old memories from research parties with the Scooby Gang.

"Xander?" asked Dawn expectantly.

"The Kalderash are one of the most powerful clans out there, they have a verbal history stretching back since before they were even known as Gypsy, and their knowledge of magick is extremely great," recited Xander. "Unfortunately, I also now understand why she came to us, and not Giles."

"Why?"

"Because we are rivals of the Watcher's Council," said Jenny shortly. "Not enemies, as we both have the same goals, but our methods are different and because of that we detest them and they detest us. Because of this the Council teaches their Field Watcher's that we are not to be trusted and avoided. The Gypsy also disagree philosophically on the Council's handling of the Slayer, in fact there was a brief battle a few centuries ago between the Council and Gypsy for control of the Slayer, which they only won because of they had more resources at their disposal."

"How do the Gypsy and the Council differ then?" asked Dawn curiously.

"The Council treats the Slayer as a disposable tool," said Jenny in distaste. "They have a vast network of contacts around the world which allow them to identify potential future Slayers and using lucrative offers take them from their families and train them from an early age in martial arts and demonology. That way, when a Slayer dies, the next one is called and they already have her in their stuffy paws. They shove a stake in her hand tell her to go forth with no proper backup and only a Field Watcher to watch her back. She must have no friends, no connections; she must work alone and in secret. The Gypsy have on the other hand thought that the Slayer must be a Champion, a rally point that must be supported, for humans to gather around who are empowered through knowledge, magic and tools to fight the darkness."

"So Buffy fell through the cracks," said Xander thoughtfully. Buffy was not a Council trained Slayer, in fact, the Council did not even consider her a possible Potential, thinking that the Call of Destiny would never fall on what to their eyes was a Californian 'ditzy' blonde girl. How wrong they were.

"Yes," nodded Jenny. "However, to get back to my purpose here, I am here to watch Angel. My clan is responsible for cursing Angelus with a soul, when he killed the favored daughter of a powerful Elder over a century ago."

Xander was stunned. "The Kalderash did that?" Jenny nodded.

"I am here to make sure that the demon continues to suffer," said Jenny with a sigh. "Recent portents and scryings have shown however, that the curse of the soul is fluctuating. The Clan does not know why."

"Oh, you can be glad Buffy isn't around," said Dawn with wide eyes, shaking her head. "She'd go postal with this info."

"Quite," breathed Xander, trying to imagine it. "I've read that the Gypsy take their oaths very seriously, and you've probably broken it to come to speak to us today…I respect that you are doing what you think is the right thing despite that." He handed her paychecks back. "You are part of this company Jenny, you know our mission and signed on to fulfill it to the best of your ability. Letting you go merely because of this deception is nothing compared to that."

"Thank you," said Jenny with a nod.

"But what is it you wish from Dawn and myself with regards to the curse?"

"I need the extra eyes to keep watch on Angel," said Jenny, "and I need your help to figure out why the curse is fluctuating like it is."

"We're not exactly the best candidates for help, Ms Calendar, the curse is magic, and Xander and I are not exactly equipped to do magic anymore, we're mostly technological by nature," said Dawn.

"I disagree," said Jenny, "you saw how magic and the Internet worked together to isolate Moloch. You might not be able to perform the pure magicks that a human witch or wicca could do, but Technomagic should be right up your alley. But I would rather ask your help from a research perspective. I am working on obtaining a copy of the original soul curse, and even if I do get it, it would need to be translated as it is most likely written in a dead dialect of Gypsy. When we can read the curse we can understand it, and then we can determine a reason for the fluctuation."

"Now that, we can do," said Xander with a grin. "Data often helped Jean-Luc Picard to translate dead languages and writings, as his passion was for exo-archeology."

"Thanks a million," said Jenny in relief and hugged Xander briefly. They engaged in small talk for a half an hour before she had to leave for home. As Xander closed the door behind her, he turned to Dawn.

"What do you think?"

"It took a lot of courage to do that if she was breaking a Gypsy oath," said Dawn respectfully. "Aren't there usually consequences doing that?"

"It depends on the type of oath," said Xander thoughtfully, "the worst that can happen is instant death. But in Ms Calendar's case I think the oath to keep silent on the soul curse will only have an effect on her position within the Clan…she could be booted out for telling us." He eyed Dawn for a moment. "I think though that it is time I get you home. Wouldn't want Buffy to get suspicious, you're lucky your mom is in LA at the moment."

"All right," she said, rolling her eyes in disgruntlement. "I was going to work on some more inconspicuous clothing for myself but it can wait till tomorrow I suppose."

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It was Career Week at Sunnydale High. And Xander found himself rather uncertain about it, as he was already busy with a career of running a company. For one thing, it involved taking a Career Aptitude Test; which was filled with vague multiple choice questions that some or other psychologist profiler had cooked up according to a mathematical scheme which he recognized with a single glance at the test paper. So instead of straining himself with a massive introspection session he decided to fill in the answers that would equate to him being an ideal businessman.

He grinned as he remembered Cordelia's reaction when their results had been posted. The Queen of Sunnydale High herself had been evaluated as either a 'personal shopper' or a 'motivational speaker'. The former he could easily imagine as appropriate; she would be an ideal consumer adviser - what to buy and what not…but 'motivational speaker', that was way out the ballpark for her. When she had seen his own recommended career she had given him a very considering, appraising stare for a brief moment and then walked off being her usual snarky self.

After school Xander headed into the library as Giles had called a general Scooby meeting to discuss the latest big bad on the horizon. He sat down next to Willow and Buffy at a study desk with a sigh.

"So what is the Hellmouth cooking up for us to deal with?"

"Vampires are getting klepto lately," said Buffy.

"Yeah," said Willow, "a few weeks ago when Ford was still alive they stole a specific book from Giles's Office, and last night raided the grave of the author; which contained a reliquary…that's a…"

"I know what a reliquary is Willow," said Xander patiently, "I've got the 24th Century Oxford Dictionary in my head."

"Oh yeah…sometimes I forget…" she said with a blush.

"Relax, go on, regale us with the impending doom," said Xander with a grin.

"This guys' name was Du Lac or something like it," said Willow.

"Ah," said Xander his occult database springing to the fore. "He was a theologian…"

"…and a mathematician," said Giles, appearing from behind the stacks and walking down the stairs towards them, clutching a National Geographic. "This is an article which describes an invention of his called 'The Du Lac Cross'."

"Which is more than just an ornate cross," stated Xander looking at the picture of it in the magazine Giles had given Willow.

"Quite right, Xander," said Giles with a smile. "It was used to understand certain mystical texts, decipher hidden meanings and so forth."

"So you're saying these vampires went through all this hassle to get your basic decoder ring?" said Buffy, looking unimpressed.

Giles looked rather taken aback that Buffy would compare such an ancient artifact to something you could get out of a box of breakfast cereal. "Uh, actually, yes, I am."

"According to this Du Lac destroyed every cross he ever made," said Willow looking at the article, "except for the one buried with him."

"Why destroy your own work?" asked Buffy.

"To prevent if from falling into the wrong hands after your death," said Xander with a considering frown. "So the vampires have a book and the cross needed to read the book…and the book contains what?"

"If rumor is to be believed, then Du Lac had some very nasty rituals and magicks which he discovered by experimenting on vampires, written in that book," said Giles darkly.

"And now the vamps have it," said Willow.

"We have to preempt their plans," said Xander.

"How?"

"By learning precisely what's in the book before they do," said Giles, looking at Xander with questioning glance.

"Hey," said Xander raising his hands in a warding gesture, "if I knew I would tell, my occult database is still on the thin side. I only know of Du Lac, not the specific magicks he researched."

"Which means we can expect to be here later tonight," said Giles intently sitting down.

"Goody!" said Willow with a smile. "Research party!"

"Speaking of," said Buffy, standing up, "I really have to bail, but I promise I'll be back bright and early tomorrow and ready to slay."

"This is a matter of some urgency, Buffy," said Giles in protest at her leaving.

"I realize that," said Buffy in irritation, "you have to admit, though, I kinda lack in the book area. I mean you guys are the brains, and Xander is Mr Positron processor brain thingy and I'd only be here for moral support anyway." Buffy looked at Willow pointedly.

"She _should_ go," said Willow after a moment. They had so rehearsed this moment. "Y-you know, gather her strength."

"Perhaps you are right," said Giles, totally missing the byplay, "there may be fierce battles ahead."

Buffy took that opening and made tracks out the door.

Xander gathered a thick tome for reference and started to zip through it. He waited until Giles retreated back to the stacks for more books and whispered to Willow, "So where is she really going?" She looked nervously in the direction of the stacks.

"To an ice rink, skating with Angel," she said and quickly pretended to keep reading as Giles came back. Sometimes Buffy behavior really struck him as way too typical valley girl that didn't take anything seriously besides herself and her friends and their next shopping trip. If Buffy wasn't the Slayer she would've probably been right there next to Cordelia as Queen or Princess of Sunnydale High's social ladder. Now that would've been a sight.

Xander returned to his book and flipped through the pages at a speed that made Giles wince.

"Please, Xander, I know you can speed read, but that is a very old book and pages are delicate," remonstrated the Watcher.

"Sorry," said Xander with a grin, and slowly leafed through the text.

"Better," said Giles and returned to his own reading.

Two hours later and Xander finally closed the twentieth book he had searched through and Willow looked at his finished pile with envy. He closed his eyes and started to collate and sift through all the data he had had collected.

He was interrupted as the doors to the library burst open and a wincing Buffy came back in, she was dressed in warm clothing, confirming the visit to ice rink except that her knee looked banged up and bloody.

"Good Lord, what happened Buffy?" said Giles standing and rushing towards his Slayer.

"Had a run in with a big one-eyed guy that tried to kill me," said Buffy, sitting down on the stairs with a wince as Giles brought an icepack from the fridge in his office for her. "Wearing this," she handed an ornate band ring to her Watcher and placed the ice pack on her knee.

Xander watched over Giles shoulder as he examined the ring with a magnifying glass…it was good workmanship…there were symbols engraved and they were for…

"Oh great," said Xander in alarm, rushing over to the library cage and readying Giles's own UMP for use.

"What's up Xander?" asked Willow worriedly.

"That's a good reaction for what we're dealing with here," said Giles gesturing to the ring, "This is only worn by members of the Order of Taraka. It's a society of deadly assassins dating back to King Solomon."

"Why are they after me?" asked Buffy with a frown. Xander came out of the cage the UMP ready and held in his left hand.

"Cause you're the scourge of the Underworld?" opinioned Willow.

"I haven't been scourgey lately," said Buffy.

"No," disagreed Xander, "there is a correlation to this attack and the theft of Du Lac's Cross, the timing is a no coincidence. The Order of Taraka are only sent when they have been hired by someone. They are not bad or good, they merely accept a contract and carry it out."

"It's a bit of a stretch," said Giles, "but makes sense. Hiring the Order to come after Buffy and keep us distracted fending off assassination attempts on her while they are free to conduct whatever scheme they have in mind. I think the best thing we can do is find a secure location. Somewhere out of the way until we can decide on a best course of action."

"Okay, now you and Angel have both said to head for the hills. Are you saying that I can't handle this, that I'm not strong enough to fight these people?" said Buffy in a fit of anger.

"Buffy, these aren't vampires you're fighting," said Xander shaking his head. "This is a group of human and demon assassins who are not above using a Sniper Rifle to take you out from a distance of eight hundred yards or more. They usually send in a team of three independently operating assassins. You don't know who they are or what they are until they strike."

Xander hated the effect of his explanation on Buffy, but they couldn't afford to sugar coat it. Her face almost reminded him of the time when she heard that stupid prophecy of her death to the Master. She looked devastated.

"Someone should stay with you at all times," said Xander.

"A b-bodyguard?" said Buffy blinking furiously.

"I'll consider myself hired," he said resolutely.

"N-no, you can't I can take care of myself," said Buffy weakly. "Can't let you take that risk for me."

"Hey," said Xander, "I walked down into the Master's lair in defiance of that stupid prophecy. Think this is any different? You will live and if these assassins try anything, they won't succeed if I have anything to say about it!"

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They had put the word out to Dawn to avoid going back to the house, even if it meant forgoing regeneration; which was cool with her anyway as if she could, she would work straight through the night on her gadgets and projects…a trait Xander thought she had well and truly inherited from Seven of Nine.

In the meantime, Xander was doing his level best to become a shadow to Buffy. He couldn't exactly walk around with a UMP in school hallways even with his trenchcoat, so he had settled for doing a Highlander routine; a nice Katana from the library weapons locker was now hidden in an inside pocket of his trenchcoat. He tried not to crowd Buffy, but it was quite difficult in the schools packed hallways.

Buffy herself was extremely jumpy, not that Xander could blame her. She took every brief glance sent her way as the considering stare of an assassin. She heard the slam of a locker behind her and whirled around, to see a brightly dressed spiky haired young man bearing down on her. She reacted on instinct and grabbed him by the neck and shoved the guy into a wall.

"Try it!" she said with a deadly tone.

"Easy Buffy," interrupted Xander, putting a hand on her arm.

The young man was looking confused and surprised that he was just pushed into a wall. Clearly not an assassin…Buffy looked sheepish as she realized her mistake.

"Um…sorry," she said, letting go and promptly walked off, Xander shrugged apologetically to the young man and followed.

Xander breathed a sigh of relief when school ended that day. So far the other two assassins hadn't made their attempts…yet. He had convinced her that DWX was the safest and most fortified location they could probably think of and so he lent her his apartment that adjoined his office on the third floor to get a bit of shuteye that night.

He unsheathed the sword from his trenchcoat and sat down at his large office desk with a sigh. Placing the sword on the desk he reached into his pocket and produced a slim rectangular device. He pushed a button on it and it flipped open into what an outside observer would've called a mobile phone but it was anything but.

"Xander to Dawn," he said into the Communicator. The tiny subspace radio crackled to life.

"_Dawn here, what's up?_"

"Are you keeping an eye on the security feeds?"

"_Yes, Xander, I am,_" she said with an impatient tone. "_This is my sister we're talking about! I'm not going to get so involved in something that I forget. I'm not even close to the neutron microscope, or the nano-manipulator. My eyes are firmly glued to the security systems._"

"Just checking," said Xander with a wince. "Xander out." He turned to his computer and started going over the list of proposed patents to file, and licenses to sell and after half an hour of that, turned to the Internet and started to surf. He wanted to see if there were any websites on the 'real' occult or just fancy wannabees…most of it was garbage but there were a few sites that had their facts accurate enough that he made a personal note of them for future reference.

The night passed with snails pace and nothing materialized as out of the ordinary. The early morning sun came up and Xander debated waking Buffy up, but he felt she maybe deserved a bit of a lie in. Going to school vs. imminent death was a no brainer of a choice.

"_Dawn to Xander_," piped his Communicator.

"Go ahead," he said.

"_Something just scaled our fence on the north-eastern corner, I couldn't get a camera around in time to see what it was…_"

"Shit, activate internal defenses, try to get a visual and get back to me," said Xander, grabbing his Katana and unsheathing it.

"_I've got motion sensors tripping fast in your building, intruder burst through a window on the ground floor…it's skilled whatever it is, its avoiding camera sweeps..."_

"Damn," said Xander, rushing out into the hallway, his sword out in a ready stance, and waiting. He didn't want to go too far from Buffy, in case this was all just a ruse to draw him away and give the assassin a free hand to strike from another direction.

He stared down the hallway towards the central staircase and elevator next to it. The elevator car which had been on the ground floor was moving up…Xander dismissed it instantly, that was too sloppy for a Tarakan assassin…no it would use the stairs and come up carefully in its own time…

Xander found himself surprised though when the elevator doors opened up and the assassin did indeed come from it…due to the fact of the rapidly closing throwing axe that was twirling its way towards his forehead. In a blur of movement he intercepted it perfectly with his Katana, sending it clattering to the floor.

This allowed the…rather small assassin to close the distance between them into melee range. Xander twirled the Katana in a shoulder to hip slice, that the, clearly female assassin deftly avoided, he surprised her by following it up more quickly than she expected by attacking with the blunt reverse edge of the blade. This allowed him a moment to study her as she was flung into the wall by the force of the blow…she had mocha skin, long black hair braided in a ponytail and a face indicating Caribbean ancestry and about the same height as Buffy but more curvier and rounded with muscle. She wore tight green pants and an island motif top that left her stomach and lower back alluringly bare.

It was Xander's turn to be surprised as she recovered way too fast and managed to get a kick directly onto his hands in an effort to rob him of his sword. Of course, it didn't work as she expected…a normal person would have dropped the sword in an effort to preserve their fingers from getting crushed against the grip of the sword, the pressure registered in Xander's mind but there was no pain as his android fingers made out of the best of 24th C metallurgy could handle a lot more than that with no sweat. It did have the effect of pushing him back a few steps to give her more room.

Which was unfortunate for her as an armed security camera mounted with a view of the corridor got a clear shot (Dawn was controlling them manually). An orange beam lanced out and struck her in the side, she staggered from the blow as her nerve endings betrayed her with the energy overload, but her constitution was clearly formidable, as she seemed to shrug it off after a moment. She charged towards Xander again, but this time two beams lanced in from opposite directions and covered her body with a brief orange sheen of energy, which finally caused her to slump to the ground…unconscious.

"Xander?!" came a familiar voice from his office. He turned to see a rather tousle haired Buffy rushing towards him. "What's going on?"

"I stopped what I thought was another assassin," said Xander, kneeling down to examine the unconscious girl slumped on the floor. He examined her hands. "No ring, yet her skill was great and she has a rather supernatural constitution and strength, it took three phaser stun shots to down her and yet she is not a vampire."

"Are you sure?"

"She has a pulse and body heat consistent with a normal human," he answered. "Yet, she was clearly after you for some reason and I was merely in her way."

"Search me, this is the first time I've seen her in my life," said Buffy.

"Perhaps…I think we should let Giles take a look at her…and maybe hear what she has to say when she comes around…under controlled conditions of course…"

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Controlled conditions involved tying Buffy's would be assassin to a chair in the office, Xander made sure to use proper knots and coil the thick rope above the joints of the young woman, so she could have absolutely no leverage to use that supernatural strength of hers. Giles and Willow had finally arrived after half an hour.

"Really, Giles, you need to get a better car," said Xander with a sigh, training the bulbous hand held version of the phase pistol on the unconscious girl, just in case she was stronger than they realized when they woke her up.

"I'm planning on getting one," said the Watcher acerbically as he examined the girl closely. "Just haven't had the time."

"So?" asked Buffy.

"I can only come to the same conclusions as Xander," said Giles with a sigh, standing up. "I can definitely say she is no demon of any sort. But if she is supernaturally strong as Xander suggests then…I wonder…" he said looking at Buffy consideringly.

"What?" asked Buffy, looking rather self-conscious at the scrutiny. Giles shook his head and pulled some smelling salts out of a handy first-aid kit and passed it under the nose of the captive young woman. The fumes forced her lungs to involuntarily contract in a heavy cough. Normally, this wouldn't have revived someone from a phaser stun but the young woman's constitution was clearly impressive to overcome the residual effects rather more quickly.

Her eyes blinked open to reveal dark brown orbs that instantly took up the cunning look of a predator as it swept the room to see who her captors were and they made it clear that she was not impressed. Her face was a mask devoid of emotion as she subtly tested her bonds. Seeing that she was not breaking herself out of her predicament she took the verbal route.

"Who are you?" she asked in a clear Caribbean accent. "Why am I a prisoner?"

"Oh, let's see, breaking into private property, destruction of private property, attacking me with the aim to get at Buffy," said Xander pointing at the blonde Slayer. "I think that pretty much covers the prisoner part."

"As for who we are," said Giles with a frown, "we rather want to know who you are first? And since you are in no position to argue, I suggest you comply." The captive girl looked around at each of them with a considering stare, she paused momentarily at Xander and considered the strange looking weapon he was pointing at her, then looked at Giles.

"I am Kendra, de Vampire Slayer. Do what ye will with me, when I die another Slayer will be called to finish what I could not."

That pronouncement was met with looks of utter disbelief from Willow and Buffy. Xander raised his eyebrow at that, this Kendra definitely believed she was telling the truth judging from her vocal stress patterns…perhaps…

"That's impossible!" exclaimed Buffy. "I'm the Slayer."

"Nonsense!" retorted Kendra, "Dere is but one, and I am she!"

"Bzzzzt, wrong," said Buffy sarcastically, "I'm Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and this is my Watcher Rupert Giles."

"I also have a Watcher," retorted Kendra, "his name is Sam Zabuto."

"I know of Sam Zabuto," said Giles, giving a start at the familiar name, " a very well respected Field Watcher."

"Ok, if she fought as well as Xander says," said Willow, "and she does have a real Watcher…how can there be two Slayers at the same time?"

"A new Slayer is called when one dies," said Xander with a sigh, "and Buffy died for a few minutes until I performed CPR on her."

"Good Lord!" said Giles, looking astounded. "That's it, of course. Clearly it seems it doesn't matter how long you were dead Buffy, the moment it happened the next Slayer was called…causing there to be two…where there was only one."

"You died?" said Kendra, looking at Buffy, and for the first time she looked slightly less hostile, as it apparently dawned on her that she was amongst good guys.

"Just a little," said Buffy sheepishly.

"So this is possible?" asked Willow amazed.

"It would seem so," said Giles, sitting down on a chair. "This is completely unprecedented. I'm quite flummoxed."

"So do we need to keep you tied to a chair?" asked Xander dryly. "Will you play nice?" Kendra frowned for a moment at him and then nodded. He approached the rear of her chair and tugged at the knots and pulled the ropes off her, allowing her to stand and rub the circulation back into her squeezed extremities.

"What are ye?" she asked pointedly. "You fight with great speed and strength equal to a Slayer, yet I don't sense you're a vampire, in fact I don't sense anything at all from ye."

"Let's just say I have a gift, and I aid Buffy in her duties and I'm her friend," said Xander carefully. "Willow over there is a trainee witch who helps in any magical issues that arises, and there are a few other friends who help as well."

"And you allow dis, sir?" asked Kendra incredulously of Giles. "The Slayer must work in secret for security."

"Yes," said Giles, "but there have been many cases in the p-past where disaster was only averted because of Buffy's friends. Life here on the Hellmouth is not conducive to s-standard procedure I'm afraid."

"This is a mistake, she isn't suppose to be here," interrupted Buffy irately, and turned to Kendra, "Look, no offense I really don't mean this personally, but I'm not dead, and frankly having you here creeps me out just a little bit."

"I cannot just leave," said Kendra with a frown, "I was sent here for a reason. Mr Zabuto said all de signs indicate dat a very dark power is about to rise in Sunnydale."

"And what's your plan for finding this dark power?" asked Buffy angrily, "You just gonna attack people randomly until you find a bad one?"

"Of course not."

"Then why did you try to attack me?"

"I tought you were a vampire," said Kendra stoically.

"Oh, a swing and miss for the rookie," snapped Buffy.

"I had good reason to think you were. Did I not see you kissing a vampire?" she asked pointedly.

"Buffy would never do that!" said Willow, snapping to her friend defense, but then thought better of it when she realized the whole deal with Angel. Kendra had probably seen Buffy and Angel together. "Oh, you sometimes do that…but only with Angel."

"Yes! Right!" said Buffy. "You saw me with Angel, he is a vampire, but he is good."

"Angel?" said Kendra with a thoughtful frown. "You mean Angelus? I've read about him. He is a monster."

"No, no, no, he's, he's good now," said Giles rather lamely in Xander's opinion.

"Really!" confirmed Willow with a smile.

"He had a gypsy curse," said Buffy, as if that would explain everything.

"He has a what?" asked Kendra, looking baffled.

"Y'know what? Just trust me on this, he's on the home team now, okay?" said Buffy rather condescendingly.

"I cannot believe you," said Kendra, "he looked like just another animal when I…"

"When you what?" asked Buffy in anger, suddenly stepping into her sister Slayer's personal space, "What did you do to him?"

"I…" said Kendra uncomfortably.

"What did you do?!"

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What she did, it seems, was fight Angel and lock him in a storage cabinet facing windows with an eastern exposure at Willy's Bar or as it was otherwise known The Alibi Room.

Willy's Bar was a seedy establishment catering to demons and vampires that was run by a little weasel of a man that was only known as Willy the Snitch. He was called thus because nobody bothered to get to know the man better and because he had a very bad habit of selling any information he heard his patrons talking about to the highest bidder…hence the 'Snitch' moniker. Judging from his accent though you would mistake him for an Italian descended New Yorker, and due to the fact that he was also knee deep into the criminal underworld meant that he probably had his roots in the Mafia. The fact that he was in Sunnydale also probably meant that he was not welcome back in the Big Apple; which Xander thought, given the man's tendencies was probably to be expected.

Xander was dressed in his hunting clothes and armed appropriately, this time with the addition of his Katana. Kendra still did not believe him when he told her that his UMP was fully effective against vampires. She also protested the fact that he was coming along with her and Buffy, stating that it was Slayer business only.

"Back off, pink ranger, he's coming," said Buffy with finality.

When they walked into Willy's Bar, there was no clientele, not surprising since they were probably back home sleeping off hangovers and such. Kendra led them into the back room where the cage was that she had locked Angel in…only to find it open and empty.

"No ashes," said Kendra. "So I did not kill him."

"And I don't need to kill you," growled Buffy.

It was at this point that Willy himself showed up at the door. The balding small man smiled at the three of them.

"Whoa! There's a lot of tension in this room…eeep," said Willy as he lifted off his feet by Xander and pushed two feet off the floor against the wall.

"Hello Willy," said Xander with a grin.

"Hey kid," said Willy straining to speak with the pressure, "pretty strong grip you've got there."

"It comes in handy," agreed Xander.

"He is dirty, this one," said Kendra, looking at Willy with distaste. "I can feel it."

"That's because he panders and serves drinks to demons and vampires so much, its stench is setting off your senses," said Xander with an evil grin.

"Where's Angel?" demanded Buffy.

"My buddy Angel?" said Willy innocently, "you'd think I'd let him fry? I saved him in the nick! He was about five minutes away from being a crispy critter."

"Where'd he go?"

"Uh, he said he was gonna stay underground. You know, recuperate," said Willy.

"Are you telling me the truth?" said Buffy angrily.

"I swear on my mother's grave!" pleaded Willy desperately. "Should something fatal happen to her, God forbid."

"Den he is alright, we can return to your Watcher for our orders," said Kendra imperiously. Xander dropped Willy on his feet and shoved him away back into the main room of the bar.

"I don't take orders," snapped Buffy as they walked to the door leading back outside, "I do things my way."

"No wonder you died," said Kendra judgmentally.

"Let's go," said Buffy ignoring the jibe. But before they could leave Willy piped up getting their attention.

"I have to ask," said Willy nervously, "has either of you girls considered modeling? I have a friend with a camera? Strictly high-class nude work. You know, art photographs. But naked." Xander was momentarily stunned at this pronouncement and felt a sliver of respect for Willy's courage to ask this of two in their prime Slayers. Buffy and Kendra looked at each other exchanging a look of mutual shared disgust. Xander's protective instincts kicked in and he bopped Willy over the head and they left.

"Willy was lying. Vocal stress patterns indicate he was telling falsehood about Angel voluntarily staying underground."

"How do you know this?" asked Kendra with a frown.

"My gift," said Xander shortly and walked faster.

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Sunnydale High 

It was late morning in the halls of the much-unhallowed institution of learning. Xander, Buffy, Giles, Kendra and Willow had to return in fear of inviting the wrath of trollness himself, Principal Snyder. It wouldn't be much of a crimp to be expelled from Sunnydale High for Xander, as it would've been before they'd founded DWX, but it would be irritating nevertheless and access to the school meant access to the Hellmouth, which needed guarding.

Xander had to again make do without his lovely UMP, but remained in his hunter's clothes, which drew quite a bit of attention, as this was a whole new look for the class clown of Sunnydale High. Xander couldn't quite find it in himself to care about other's perceptions of him anymore.

They walked down the stairs as Giles updated Kendra further on events and the current status quo on the Hellmouth.

"Kendra, I've conferred with your Watcher, Mr Zabuto, and, uh, we both agree that until this matter with Spike and Drusilla is resolved that you two should work together." The Watcher had seemingly come to the conclusion that Spike was responsible for the contract on Buffy and he had found the most likely ritual of Du Lac that they were going to attempt.

"Oh, that'll be a treat," said Buffy sarcastically.

"So, you believe, that dis Spike is attempting to revive Drusilla to health?" asked Kendra eagerly.

"Yes, well," said the Watcher, "I think that is the-the dark power that your Watcher referred to. You see, uh, Drusilla is not only evil, she's also, well, quite mad and if she's-she's restored to full health, then uh, there's no telling what she might do."

"Den we will stop Spike," said Kendra simply with full confidence.

"Oooo, good plan, let's go, charge!" said Buffy mockingly, gesturing with her fist as if she was holding a sword.

"Buffy…" said Giles with a sigh.

"It's a little more complicated than that John Wayne," said Buffy to Kendra condescendingly.

"Yes, I'm afraid it is, you see, Spike has called upon the Order of Taraka to keep Buffy out of the way, and that is why Xander never leaves Buffy's side," explained Giles. This instantly set off Kendra on a knowledgeable rant about the Order of Taraka and how they were chronicled in the writings of Dramius. Giles looked utterly delighted at this and instantly joined in. The last they saw of the two was disappearing into the library doors discussing the writings and going off to find the sixth volume of Dramius.

"Get a load of she-Giles," said Buffy walking along.

"Creepy," agreed Willow.

"It wouldn't hurt for you to open a book once in a while," said Xander neutrally. "Especially about methods of killing different demons, you can be more efficient that way and not have to retreat and refer to Giles as much as you do."

"I would," said Buffy disgruntled, "if the people who wrote the books didn't take lessons from the droll, dry, utterly factual school of writing. It just sends me to sleep."

It was this day that Sunnydale High hosted various stalls from employers and/or industries. Students could go around and examine brochures and get information on what a specific career entailed and what they'd have to study in college to qualify. Willow and Buffy were immediately sidetracked when the latter pointed out a young man that was eyeing Willow in an 'I want to be your boyfriend' kind of way. Willow being Willow, had to disagree.

"Oh, that's Oz," said Willow with a shy smile, "he's just expressing computer nerd solidarity." Xander looked at the young man and noticed it was the same guy Buffy had almost decked thinking him a Tarakan assassin. Oz walked over with a casual, cool grace.

"Told you," said Buffy smugly and grabbed Xander to give the two an opportunity for a private chat.

They headed over to the Law Enforcement stall, which was down the hall (Buffy's preferred career apparently – at least according to her test.) Buffy signed her name on a clipboard and joined the group of six other students who had evaluated for the career. Xander had to sign his own name to blend in, so to speak and stood next to Buffy. The police recruiter was an overweight woman with the nametag Patrice on her chest. Xander noted that she had a Sergeant rank and guessed she mostly ran a desk in the Department; she did however wear a heavy black belt with cuffs, baton and pistol all fitted to it.

"All right, listen up," said Patrice in an unpleasant tone, "and answer when I call your name. Buffy Summers…"

It was as Buffy raised her hand that Xander realized the setting they were in. A crowded hallway full of students, a place where Buffy would be known to be, the fact that Taraka didn't much care whether they caused collateral damage or not. And the fact that Buffy might as well have drawn a bull's eye on herself by so loudly identifying herself.

Xander's 'oh shit' moment was proven true when Patrice the Police Recruiter (undercover Tarakan assassin) calmly put down her clipboard and in a flash drew her pistol and aimed for Buffy. Xander reacted with the speed inherent in an android that no biological being could hope to match. He rushed forward and grabbed Patrice's hands, pushing the gun upward as the first shot went off into the ceiling.

Panic set in throughout the hall and people started to run and duck for cover instinctually.

Patrice was frantically struggling against Xander for possession of the gun. Xander noted that she seemed much, much stronger than he first estimated; there was clearly a supernatural element involved. Patrice's face was gritted and straining with the effort to pry herself free from him. Xander decided to force an end to this by kneeing the woman powerfully in the stomach. The wind went out of the assassin's sails and she slumped to the ground, struggling to draw breath, allowing Xander to gain control of the weapon. He let it drop to the floor and his hand fell to the nerve cluster around the gasping woman's neck and a Vulcan pinch later, she had slumped to the floor unconscious.

Xander inspected her hands and sure enough…a Tarakan ring.

"Number two," said Buffy, looking slightly dazed. "Wow, Xander, you were like…fast."

"My nerve impulses travel at the speed of light," said Xander with a shrug and started to search the woman. He found a wad of cash…about ten thousand in hundred dollar bills…probably for miscellaneous expenses, a wallet with Patrice's ID, everything fake, a few nasty knives hidden in various pockets around her police trousers and a backup weapon on her ankle. "Now there's the question of what to do with her? I'm seriously tempted to just kill her right here."

"Tempting," admitted Buffy with a sigh, "considering we will be saving the lives of her future targets."

"Yes, but remember, Tarakans are on the Grey ends of the moral spectrum," said Xander ruefully, "her future targets could also include people who would or could become Stalins, Hitlers and the like. So I think we should just lock her up and keep her unconscious until we deal with Spike."

"Best thing we can do," confirmed Buffy and carried the assassin towards the library.

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"I have discovered the keys to the ritual that Spike will use to cure Drusilla," announced Giles after securing the cage in the library with Patrice the assassin inside and further stunned with a Phaser to keep her unconscious, which Xander had loaned to the Watcher. "The ritual requires the presence of her sire, and it must take place in a church on the night of the new moon."

"The new moon," said Kendra gravely, "that is tonight."

"Exactly," said Giles, "and I'm sure the assassins were sent to kill Buffy before she could put a stop to things."

"Drusilla's sire," said Buffy with a frown of worry beginning to mar her features, "that's Angel. Will this ritual kill him?"

"Yes, I'm afraid it will," said Giles solemnly.

"We need to find this church. We need to find where this ritual is gonna take place," said Buffy resolutely.

"Agreed," said Giles, looking at his watch, "we must work quickly, we have five hours before sundown."

"Don't worry Buffy," said Willow, opening her laptop, "we'll save Angel."

"Angel? But our priority is to stop Drusilla," objected Kendra.

"Like it or not, Angel is an ally," said Xander with a frown, "therefore we will save him."

"Look, you've got your priorities, and I've got mine," argued Buffy, "right now, they mesh. So, are you gonna help me, or are you gonna get out of my way?"

"I'm wit you," said Kendra eventually after a considering gaze.

"Good, because I've had it," said Buffy angrily, "Spike is going down. You can attack me, you can send assassins after me, that's fine. But nobody messes with my boyfriend!"

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One would think that to find a church in Sunnydale, aka Boca del Infernio, in which vampires were about to hold a magical ritual, would be an easy thing. Most towns it's size only had about a dozen places of worship and could be easily checked out within a reasonable amount of time. It was in fact, quite the opposite. There were an impressive forty-three churches in Sunnydale. The blanket of evil that was draped over the town subconsciously inspired its residents to pray that extra little bit harder and longer, meaning more churches were built to satisfy the demand. Unfortunately, for the Scoobies, that meant there was no way they could do a systematic search of the churches in town due to the time constraints of the new moon rising.

In the end, they'd had to fall back on Human Intelligence, which was a rather large oxymoron when you considered the specific human involved, Willy the Snitch. Xander, Buffy and Kendra had returned to the The Alibi Room whereupon he proceeded to rather thoroughly interrogate the barkeep for information. The two Slayers were rather awed by the display as Xander started to simply pinch Willy extremely hard in strategic chakra pressure points all over his body.

In the end, Willy was left alternately twitching and becoming as limp as a rag doll. He was in a daze of pain and constantly mumbling the address of the church they were looking for, clearly still thinking that Xander was still applying pressure to his nerve endings. He gave the man a slap, to rouse him out of it and pressed a few chakra points in the man's chest, which gave him back most of his faculties.

"I suggest you lay still for half an hour at least, but you'll recover," said Xander and walked out of the pub, Buffy and Kendra following.

"What was that?" asked Buffy, alternately feeling impressed and shocked at the interrogation.

"I used a combination of Chakra and Chinese Pressure points in his body to create a sustained debilitating effect," said Xander stoically.

"It was most impressive, sir," said Kendra looking at Xander rather awed. She now turned to Buffy. "We must return to de Watcher and report this."

"Excuse me?" said Buffy angrily, "while we run to Giles, this whole thing could go down!"

"But it is procedure!" argued Kendra.

"It's brainless, you mean! If we don't go now, Angel could die," said Buffy intently.

Xander cleared his throat loudly, getting both Slayers' attention, he held up his Communicator (Comm-unit), "Welcome to the twenty first century, girls," he said wryly. "I gave Giles his before we left."

"Xander to Giles."

"_Hello…is this thing working….Xander?…no Willow, I know….yes…hello?_" came the Watcher's voice.

"Giles, we've got a location on the ritual," said Xander.

"_Excellent, we really need to keep closer tabs on Willy, so where is it?_"

"It's the church on the corner of Pinebluff and Franklin, we need all hands on deck for this one, get Dawn and ask her to issue Phase pistols to everyone."

"_Got that, we're on our way, ummm, oh yes…Giles out."_

"Happy now?" asked Xander pointedly of Kendra; who nodded ruefully. He put the Comm-unit in his pocket and they headed off.

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William the Bloody, aka Spike, Vampire of the Aurelius bloodline, regarded the interior of the church he was in with visible distaste. It had that same long rectangular configuration of all churches, multiple long benches with a central aisle, all with a good view of the nave. This particular church was Catholic, as such crosses and holy effigies were everywhere on the walls, he was even sure the church itself was shaped as a cross from above, which probably explained the tingling he could feel through his boots…as if the holy energy imbued within the place was trying to reach him but just not getting there.

_Now where was I?_ He thought eagerly. _Ah yes… _He looked down into the book written by that handy fellow Du Lac and regarded the scene in front of him. In front of the altar his sire and vampire girlfriend Drusilla was chained and strapped together with her was her own sire, Angel, looking rather the worse for wear after the extended torture session Drusilla had put him through. Their respective right arms were tied together as well and attached to the chain over their heads, allowing Spike easy access for what he had to do.

"Eligor," chanted Spike firmly, "I name thee. Bringer of war, poisoners, pariahs, grand obscenity." He put the burning incense censer on the altar and continued, "Eligor, wretched master of decay, bring your black medicine." With his gloved hand he picked up the Du Lac cross.

"Black medicine," echoed Drusilla absently, her eyes far away, staring at something only she could see.

"Come," beckoned Spike, turning the cross upside down, "Restore your most impious, murderous child!"

"Murderous child," said Drusilla with longing. Spike braced himself and quickly as possible yanked on the downward pointing tip of cross with his other hand…he was burned slightly from contact with the artifact but it was manageable…but he had pulled, hidden within the cross itself a very special and ornate enchanted dagger. He put the cross down.

"From the blood of the sire, she is risen," he chanted and raised the dagger to Angel and Drusilla's joined hands. "From the blood of the sire, she shall rise again!" he shouted and with a swift stroke stabbed the blade through their hands. Spike had to back off and blink furiously to clear his eyes, for the release of power was extremely great. A bright pink light now emanated from the joined wound and the dagger was hidden within the writhing power. A pulse of energy was emitted finally and the glare and power died down to a slight glow as the shining dagger was visible again. Angel was visibly weakening and Drusilla slumped backward as she absorbed the energy from her sire.

"Right then!" said Spike with satisfaction, "now we just let them come to a simmering boil, and remove to a low…"

His rather satisfying quip was interrupted when what was clearly automatic gunfire reach his ears. He whirled in alarm for a moment, scanning the area…it came from outside. Whoever it was would get the surprise of his life when they met up with Norman the Man made out of Bugs; a deceptively normal looking 'man' who was also a very effective Tarakan assassin. No bullet, sword, fist would stop him, though Spike never hired a minion he didn't know how to kill, flame would gut the Bugman quite effectively and squishing the constituent bugs he was made of would also work (though that would be quite disgusting) that was beyond the Slayer capabilities nor did any of her pals know how to conjure flame. So he was rather confident that his vampire minions and Norman could deal with any interruptions.

The next sound he heard was quite strange…a deep wizzing, almost whooshing sound that almost had an electric sense to it, and was also accompanied by bright orange flashes that refracted through the stained glass windows. He had no clue what to make of that.

The wizzing sound occurred again, and again, finally he could hear the fighting and grunts of melee combat; the hard slap of flesh on flesh, whirling kicks, swinging fists, and choked screams. The gunfire erupted again…

Spike was gritting with indecision, he longed to go out there and kick some butt, but he was in the middle of the ritual and he couldn't leave his Drusilla tied up for the Slayer to sneak up out of the woodwork and stake her, the whole show outside could be just a rouse for him to do just that.

"Aarrggh, hurry up and dust, you magnificent poof," snarled Spike towards Angel, pacing back and forth.

"I doubt that he wishes to make it easy for you," said an even voice. Spike whirled to regard the main entrance to the church. Standing in the lead looking infinitely more dangerous than he had ever seen, was that Harris bloke, one of the Slayers' little pals; he was holding a nasty looking modern machine gun in a ready position, wearing all black clothes and a trenchcoat rather reminiscent of Spike's own black leather coat. Flanking Harris was the Slayer and another girl with a distinct island feel to her and her movements and confident posture screamed that she was a competent fighter.

"Hold it Xander," said the Slayer, pushing down the gun. "I want him…"

"Pffft," said Spike looking at them as if they were mental, "hello? News flash, guns don't' work on vampires…"

"Alloyed wooden bullets are equipped in this weapon," said Harris without emotion, "my marksmanship is sufficient to fire a three round grouping directly into your heart from this distance. If you are skeptical I can demonstrate on Drusilla." he took aim…

"No, no, no!" said Spike, his thoughts racing frantically stepping in front of Drusilla to shield her. He wondered if such a weapon would work, but it was best to play it safe.

"Buffy," prompted Xander. The Slayer exploded into a sprint up the aisle, clearly aiming to open up a can of whupass on Spike. Again, Spike was torn; move forward to engage the Slayer which was a problem as it would leave his Drusilla open to Harris, or hold his ground and buy time for the ritual to finish its work…an option which was also looking bad as the other girl was running behind the Slayer with a speed only a Slayer can achieve.

Two Slayers?

In the end, the situation was untenable from all angles and only one option remained…retreat.

With the speed of a Master Vampire, he yanked out the dagger connecting Angel and Drusilla, slashed with his clawed fingers through the straps and chains, bodily grabbed his girlfriend and ran for it.

Summers gave up on the chase as he hoped and moved to help the poof. The unknown Slayer girl was not distracted and followed in hot pursuit. Spike rushed towards the large stained glass windows behind the altar and flexed his legs…the next moment he was airborne with Drusilla over his shoulder…crashing through the glass…falling the three or so meters towards the soft lawn of the church…

Gunfire erupted behind him…he staggered from the high velocity impacts of bullets that bit into his shoulder and from the thuds he could feel a few went into Drusilla as well…he managed to keep his balance and bite through the pain (the bloody bullets were blessed as well!) and rushed into the night and out of the line of fire…

The ritual wasn't complete…but Drusilla was sure to be healed somewhat…

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"Damn it, Buffy!" snapped Xander, whirling around and lowering his UMP. "You would've had him and Drusilla if you just ignored Angel for a few damn moments! He's a vampire and healing come rather naturally to them if your recall."

"Well…he was in a mojo ritual-thingy that was killing him! I had to help him…" she said from her kneeling position next to the gasping prone form of Angel.

Xander bit off his next opinion with effort. Not finishing off Spike and Drusilla when they had the chance would mean how many more deaths the Gruesome Twosome could perpetrate in the future to keep their hunger for blood sated…and being Master Vamps meant their appetite was way higher than normal vamps or fledglings. He shook his head and walked down the aisle while Buffy and Kendra helped Angel to get on his feet.

They were met by an out of breath Willow and Giles touting Phase Pistols and stakes, while Dawn in her hunting bodysuit brought up the rear, with her own UMP out and ready.

"You can relax guys," said Xander with a sigh. "We stopped the ritual halfway through. Spike and Drusilla escaped."

"Halfway…well, that's something at least," said Giles grimly. "A fully healed and sane Drusilla is not something we want walking on this earth."

"So what will she have regained?" asked Willow worriedly.

"Perhaps her strength…that's the easiest thing to heal…her mind is another matter entirely," he replied.

Xander watched Buffy as she helped a visibly wounded and tortured Angel past him. She always put her heart first. It was a virtue in some circumstances…but one that could carry terrible consequences for the future.

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	4. Chapter 4 Surprise

**Chapter 4 – Surprise**

DWX Innovations 

Xander stood pensively in the sparsely lit basement floor underneath the main research lab. The area was cast with a green hue coming from a device that he knew Starfleet and the Federation in the other Universe would be salivating to understand and get their hands on.

"So what do you think?" asked Dawn perkily, bustling around the large pulsing device and pushing buttons and making adjustments. Her black bodysuit made her look like some sort of eerie (and sexy) ghost in these lighting conditions.

"You've shocked Data into silence, and my own thoughts are along the lines of some crazy mad scientist," said Xander with a laugh. "So, explain it fully for me again. It's just too good to be true."

"Fine," huffed Dawn. "This," she pointed to the large honeycomb shaped device, "is what is part of a Borg Cube's power matrix. A Power Vinculum, it's basically multiple zero-point energy taps combined into a honeycomb matrix and is carefully phase-modulated to produce the power that the Cube uses."

"Do you know how much power ---theoretically--- something like this would produce?" asked Xander rhetorically and incredulously. "A _Sovereign_ class starship comes close, and a Cube has how many of these things?"

"Twenty seven," said Dawn shortly.

"Twenty seven," echoed Xander faintly. "Its no wonder a Cube is such a formidable thing!"

"However," said Dawn getting back on track, "we will have some initial power distribution problems."

"Yeah," agreed Xander, "nothing we've built so far can accept this much power. We'd need at least an EPS system running through the campus."

"But we can finally get working on all the cool stuff," said Dawn eagerly. "The Power Vinculum has its own computer that monitors and modulates itself during operation, but there isn't enough leeway for us to use it to regulate matter-energy conversion. We need a central computer core."

"With regards to that," said Xander with a sigh, "I think we should start with what can be easily and quickly assembled right now. I believe I can get a basic Duotronic computer core built in three days."

"Duotronic?" said Dawn aghast, "that's nowhere near enough computing power to regulate…"

"Hear me out," said Xander raising a hand, "I know its relatively old tech, but the core will not be regulating an entire Starship and doing this…if the core's job is solely to matter-energy conversions then it would work…it might not be the instantaneous materialization we're used to, but…"

"It would get the job done…allowing us to use it to manufacture parts for another leapfrog into Isolinear-Organic systems," said Dawn thoughtfully, "then if we used Borg style algo-rhythms in the software we could enhance it to eight hundred trillion calculations per nanosecond and networking multiple cores we could most certainly have enough capacity for things even beyond current Federation science."

"Like Transwarp or Quantum Slipstream Drives!" said Xander with a grin.

"That's only for when we get around to building ships," countered Dawn. "And with our current facilities, the only thing we'd be able to build would be a Delta Flyer."

"But it would be an uber-Flyer, with the power of a _Sovereign_ class," said Xander with a giddy grin.

"Getting to more terrestrial matters, how is the Curse translation coming along?" said Dawn. She was referring to the ancient scroll that Ms Calendar had finally procured with the Soul Curse used on the vampire Angelus. It wasn't the scroll itself, as that was in the possession of the Gypsy, but it was a quickly taken digital photo. Ms Calendar had said she was lucky to get even close to the scroll after the Gypsy had taken cognizance of the oath that she had broken.

"I am spending few hours a night on the thing, and letting my poor iMac continue when I'm busy with school, slayage, inventing etc. Honestly, it's slow going, I'm using the oldest available examples of written Romani as a basis and trying to work backwards in time towards the language the curse is written in."

"How long?"

"At current computational speeds…a week, two at the most," said Xander with a wince. "If I had the_ Enterprise'_ computer I could do it two days."

"If, if, if," mocked Dawn, "now get cracking on that Duotronic system."

"Yes mother," mocked Xander back and left the basement.

It was time for school so he climbed into his dingy looking second-hand Toyota, which he passed off as belonging to his parents. He was so itching to get his hands on a Ford muscle car or something like a Subaru WRX, but there was no way he could explain away suddenly owning a car of that expense. He was still Mr Anonymous with regards to the public face of DWX (which was Giles and Ms Calendar at the moment) so he had to keep up appearances. Speaking of Giles, the man had finally gotten himself a better means of transport, and was it a beauty; an Aston Martin DB7 Coupe. Xander had to admit that Giles couldn't have picked better. Aston was such a thoroughly Brit car, not to mention its connotations with James Bond.

Back at Sunnydale High, Giles who was coming out of the Teacher's Lounge immediately intercepted him.

"Oh, good morning, Xander," he looked around furtively, "is everything in order for the party?" He was referring, of course, to Buffy's upcoming birthday party, whereby it had been decided by unanimous vote to hold a surprise birthday party.

"Absolutely," nodded Xander with a grin, "are you ready to lose some of that prim and proper stiff upper lip exterior and party?"

Giles was about to answer but noticed that Buffy was coming down the stairs.

"Here comes Buffy," he whispered, "now remember: discretion is the better part of valor."

"Indeed," said Xander dryly.

"Are you alright Buffy?" asked Giles in concern, as the Slayer approached. And it was apparent to Xander and everyone else that she was not doing too well. Her eyes were slightly bloodshot and slight discoloration under them showed her sleep had not been restful at all. "You seem a little fatigued."

"Rough night," said Buffy with a tired sigh. "I dreamt that Drusilla was back in town and that she killed Angel. It really freaked me out."

"You fear it was more of a…a portent?"

"See, I don't know," complained Buffy in irritation, "I don't want to start a big freak out over nothing."

"Still," said Giles, "best to be on the alert. If Drusilla is active enough to prompt a Slayer Portent it could be that we will soon find ourselves in a…cataclysmic state of affairs."

The bell signaling that there was five minutes left before classes resounded through the halls and everyone began to scatter, but not before Giles left a bit of parting advise.

"Don't worry unduly, Buffy, it might not be a Portent at all, and even if it is, we can't act on it until we start to see some physical signs or have more evidence."

"I know, I should keep my Slayer cool, but…it's Angel which automatically equals maxi-wig."

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That evening back at DWX, Xander was hard into building the Duotronic computer. He had bought an old Cray Supercomputer chassis that was about two meters in height and had rounded edges giving it a slightly organic look for the task. He had finally mounted the internal power supply units when Ms Calendar approached him.

"Hi, Ms Calendar, what brings you to the lab?"

"I want to ask you if it would be ok to let my Uncle Enyos onto the campus, he's here to discuss the Angel situation," she said. Xander stood from his kneeling position and brushed off his hands.

"I see," said Xander, "is he going to be friendly? You violated your oath."

"The fact that he will even approach me indicates that he doesn't care about it as much as the others," said Ms Calendar.

"Very well," nodded Xander, "Conference Room 1 on the second floor." He turned back to the burgeoning computer but Jenny interrupted him.

"He wants to speak to you as well."

"Why?"

"I think he wants to understand who could have inspired me enough to violate an oath, and who could even attempt to translate ancient Romani" she said with a shrug.

"I inspire you?" said Xander dubiously.

"Of course," said Ms Calender, "not only for your upbeat ways even in the face of all the evil that festers in this town. But also the hope you represent for humanity's future."

"Ah," said Xander, he could feel himself flushing from the praise, but as he didn't have flowing blood in him, it wasn't apparent.

Uncle Enyos was a short stocky man, but muscular and had hands that betrayed a life of hard work to make ends meet. If Xander guessed right about his age, he had experienced the Death Camps of the Nazi's in Europe as a young boy and survived…that alone was enough to give him respect in Xander's eyes. He wore a dark suit and a dull brimmed fedora hat that looked like it came from an Indiana Jones movie, except it was made of black leather. His dark eyes showed a life of hard experience and his skin was browned from long exposure to sun.

"Jenny Calendar," greeted Enyos with a nod, giving her a brief hug afterwards.

"Uncle," said Ms Calendar with a hint of warmth. "This is Alexander Harris."

"A pleasure to meet you, sir," said Xander and the two shook hands. Enyos regarding him appraisingly with a frown, whose eyebrows shot up into hairline in surprise, he turned to Ms Calendar.

"How can this be?" he asked in amazement. Xander let go and looked at Ms Calendar in confusion. She seemed to have been expecting this, however.

"Uncle, Alexander is the unfortunate and fortunate victim of a Chaos Mage, who invoked Janus on Halloween, the effect on him and one other is permanent through circumstance," said Ms Calendar.

"Hmmm, the costumes?" speculated Enyos.

"Yes." Xander had to hand it to Enyos, the man was smart.

"Ms Calendar?" asked Xander warily.

"Don't worry Xander," she smiled, "my Uncle is a magician of great skill. There was no way to hide what you truly are from his senses."

"What do you define your being as?" asked Enyos curiously.

"Well, I like to think I'm still human," said Xander with a rue grin. "But technically, I suppose I'm a partially organic android with a human soul and mind residing inside."

"Fascinating, I suppose the Hellmouth augmented the unnaturalness of the event," said Enyos.

"True," admitted Xander, "I'll be the first person to admit that I'm not a natural thing, yet I am here nevertheless. And the good I can do with it is worth it."

"Very well," nodded Enyos, "I can respect that, therefore, I will say that is a pleasure to meet you too, Alexander."

"You wished to discuss Angel," prompted Xander.

"Yes," nodded Enyos, "Jana tells me you are attempting to translate the ancient curse so that we may understand and perhaps refine it. I'm here to tell you both that time is against you. The elder woman, our Seer, is reporting that the vampire's pain is lessening. She can feel it."

"But the curse still holds," said Ms Calendar.

"The elder woman is never wrong," said Enyos in a no-nonsense voice. She stared at Xander and looked down with a conflicted look on her face.

"There is…a girl," she said. And like a ton of crashing bricks a starling realization came upon him.

"What?" said Enyos in disgust, no doubt at the thought of any girl and a vampire being …cozy. "How could you let this happen?"

That was unfair. "Sir, there is no way it was within Ms Calender's power to prevent this. Angel is in love with Buffy, the Slayer."

"The Slayer is in love with Angel?" said Enyos, aghast. "Do they have a wish to enact the Star Crossed Lovers tale?"

"Seems it's the way fate has laid down her cards," commented Ms Calendar.

"Then there is only one thing that can be done," said Enyos. "You must tell the Slayer that she must stop seeing Angel, at least until the Curse can be translated, refined and recast."

"Oh boy," said Xander, "that will be a pleasant conversation…and on her birthday no less."

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Xander and Willow entered the school library the next morning and the day had finally arrived in which Buffy was officially turning seventeen. It was to be expected though that the Hellmouth would throw a crimp on things as they found Giles anxiously pacing back in forth in front of a very worried Buffy sitting on a table.

"Greetings and salutations, it's a very happy birthday to you my dear Slayer," said Xander with a smile and mocking stiff upper lip, doing a spot on impression of a Brit accent.

"It's happy birthday Buffy!" burbled Willow happily, jumping over the table and hugging Buffy by the shoulders. Buffy was less than enthused and merely looked down pulled a lock of blonde hair behind her ear. Xander walked over to the table and sat down with Willow.

"Not happy birthday Buffy?" said Willow sadly.

"It's just that part of the nightmare that Buffy had the other night actually transpired," said Giles in deep concern.

"Which means Drusilla is gunning for full badness. Giles, in my dream, I couldn't stop her. She blindsided me. Angel was gone before I knew what happened."

"Even so, we can still take steps now to protect Angel," said Giles. "Dreams aren't prophecies, Buffy. Y-y-y-you dreamt that the Master had risen, but you stopped it from happening."

"I think you should take the dream as being forewarned of a probability Buffy," said Xander astutely. "There is no use in worry, it merely taxes your energy and directs your focus to the wrong place."

"Well said Xander," said Giles with a nod.

"Okay, fine," said Buffy with a nod, "so we're a step ahead, but I wanna stay that way."

"Absolutely," said Giles. "Let me read up on Drusilla, see if she has any particular patterns." He started to walk towards his office. "Why don't you meet me here at 7:00? We'll map out a strategy."

"What am I supposed to do until then?" asked Buffy.

"Go to classes, do homework, have supper…"

"Right, be _that_ Buffy," said the Slayer with a roll of her eyes. She got up from the table, grabbed her bag and left.

"That is one troubled birthday puppy," said Xander, pointing at the doors Buffy had just gone through.

"So much for our surprise party, I bought little hats and everything," said Willow with a frown.

"Indeed," said Xander with a nod.

"Oh, well, I'll go and tell Cordelia," said Willow reluctantly, as Queen C was brining most of the refreshments for the event.

"No, you won't," said Giles sternly. "We're having a party tonight."

Xander stared at Giles in surprise and turned to Willow, "he looks like Giles, Mr Supreme Caution, but I can't believe that just came out of his mouth." Willow could only frown and nod in agreement.

"Buffy's surprise party will go ahead as planned," said Giles firmly. "Except I won't be wearing the little hat."

"But Buffy and Angel…"

"May well be in danger," agreed Giles reasonably, "as they've been before and I imagine will be again. One thing I've learned here in my tenure on the Hellmouth is that there is no good time to relax. And Buffy's turning seventeen just this once, and she deserves a party."

"You're a great man of our time," said Xander with a big grin.

"And anyway, Angel's coming," said Willow, "So she'll be able to protect him and have cake."

"Precisely," said Willow and happily skipped towards the exit of the library, but frowned as she realized Xander wasn't with her.

"Go ahead, Willow, I just need to speak to Giles quickly, manly things," said Xander in explanation with a smile.

"OK, don't stay too long."

"Xander?" said Giles after Willow disappeared through the doors.

"Can we speak in your Office?"

"Certainly."

They entered the small adjoining office filled with all a manner of unsorted books and locked filing cabinets where Giles kept the really 'Dark' and 'Dangerous' books that no one who wasn't a Watcher had any really business reading. Xander closed the door and as Giles took a seat at his desk, he pondered how best to break this information. He had come to the conclusion that he would need Giles on his side first about the whole 'Angel Gypsy Curse' situation if he was to have any hope to easily break the news to Buffy. There was also the whole 'Jenny Calendar is actually Jana Kalderash, Gypsy' situation.

"I have come into the possession of troubling information G-Man," said Xander carefully, wincing as he tried to come up with a way to avoid this blowing up in his face.

"What troubling information?" asked Giles in concern.

"It's about Angel, are you aware of the particulars of how his soul was restored to him?" said Xander.

"Just what's generally known," said Giles, "that Angelus murdered a Gypsy and in vengeance they cursed him with the soul of his former existence before he was turned into a vampire by Darla."

"Yesterday I encountered a Gypsy by the name of Enyos…" said Xander but was interrupted.

"A Gypsy… here on the Hellmouth? Are you certain?" said Giles with a frown.

"I'm pretty certain, as he identified himself as such to me," said Xander, looking appraisingly at Giles' reaction.

"What would a Gypsy want with you?" asked Giles in bafflement.

"The fact that he is Gypsy should not be concerning you, nor why he told me, and the information he relayed to me was important enough to ignore the childish rivalry that exists between Watchers and Gypsy…"

"It's not a childish rivalry…" snapped Giles with a frown.

"Really? Both Watcher and Gypsy wear white hats and yet you treat each other as America and the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War," said Xander dryly.

"Xander, you don't understa…"

"I don't need to!" snapped Xander, "the fact that this info came to me at the same time as Drusilla was rising again is not a coincidence. And now Buffy is having Slayer Portents about Angel meeting his end….which in light of my information adds a whole new spin on things."

"What do you mean?" asked Giles.

"The information the Gypsy told me is that their Seers have begun to sense that the Curse on Angel is fluctuating. For some reason the magical bonds that are holding the soul bound to the vampire Angelus is weakening."

Giles instantly paled at hearing this.

"Are you certain?"

"The Gypsy didn't lie, Giles, my auditory and visual sensors would've detected physiological changes in him if he did," said Xander. "And what would the Gypsy have to gain by the Curse failing? They aren't interested in seeing Angel dusted, they want Angelus to continue to suffer for all eternity."

"You make a valid point," said Giles thoughtfully. "So you're thinking the fact that Buffy is seeing Drusilla staking Angel in her dream, could be interpreted to mean that somehow Drusilla will be responsible for lifting the Curse of the Soul, if indeed the Soul's bounds are weakening."

"Yes," nodded Xander, "it makes a twisted sense, that could be Spike and Drusilla's long term plan, reuniting the Scourge of Europe, only now it will be the Scourge of America."

"We cannot allow that to happen," said Giles darkly, "between them they massacred countless during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Did this Gypsy give you any idea if they had a reason for the Curse weakening?"

"It's only speculation at this point," said Xander, "I was given a copy of original curse and am trying to translate it using various translation algorhythms at DWX, as its written in ancient Romani, but it will take at least another week. However, the Gypsy have been keeping tabs on Angel and they theorized that only one thing has changed in Angel's life since the Curse was cast…"

"Buffy," said Giles with a deep wearied sigh. "Damn why didn't I think of it before! The Curse is meant to punish, to make Angelus feel the human emotions of guilt, torment…to make the demon suffer. Experiencing love, happiness, is the exact opposite of what the curse is meant for. And I call myself a Watcher."

"Yes," nodded Xander, "and also proximity to the chaotic effect and mystical forces of the Hellmouth doesn't help."

"It only heightens the problem, blast it all! And on her birthday of all days we get this information. What a merry gift that would make," said Giles acerbically.

"Yeah, '_Buffy, here's your gift, and oh' did I mention that you can't be with Angel anymore, since the happiness you're giving him will cause his soul to eventually go bye-bye_'," said Xander sarcastically.

"Well we are not telling her today," said Giles firmly. "She will be happy on this day. I'm sure the Curse will hold for another twenty-four hours…then we can tell her."

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The Bronze

It was finally time. That most auspicious of occasions. The most celebrated event on the planet. It was Buffy's birthday. Party favors, chips, cake and dips had been gathered, decorations placed all over the Bronze and the lights had been switched off. Xander and the rest of the Scoobies were hiding behind a pool table, whilst Angel was standing closest to the door behind a pillar. It was at this point that Xander wondered about whether a surprise party was the wisest course of action to celebrate Buffy's seventeenth year of existence, since, as a Slayer her knee-jerk reaction to any sudden sound and burst of light was to kick, punch, kill and stomp until there was nothing left and then ask questions.

Miss Calendar had gone to surreptitiously bring Buffy to the Bronze, but Xander's internal chronometer showed quite clearly that something was keeping the two.

"Where is she?" whispered Angel, peeking around a corner.

This of course, caused everyone else peek up from behind the pool table.

"Shh! I hear her coming," whispered Willow harshly.

Xander dialed his audio sensors to a higher-level…what he heard made him forego the thought of staying hidden; the sound of grunting, harsh breath, kicks and punches meeting flesh or being deflected was unmistakable.

"If that's Buffy, she's got company," he said with worry.

He was proven correct in his analysis when Buffy and a Vampire burst through the floor window and hit the floor hard. Everyone had forgone hiding and now stared as Buffy scrambled to her feet in a moment and kicked the vampire just as he got to a vertical base. The vampire lost his balance and stumbled backward. At this point Buffy showed her improvisational skills and grabbed a drumstick from the nearby set, spun around in a blur, and trust it into the vampire's chest just as he was lunging for her again. She pulled it back out and it exploded into ash. It was at this point that Xander realized that Oz was with them, and as he was most certainly not a Scooby; had just gotten his world rather irrevocably changed. Oz's eyes were rather wide with astonishment; yet there was something in his manner that was missing from those who normally had their eyes opened to the supernatural.

Cordelia chose this moment to try to salvage the situation…rather dismally, but jumping forward and yelling: "Surprise!"…which no one chorused with her.

"That pretty much sums it up," said Oz evenly, his voice rather light.

"Cordelia, tsk, tsk," said Xander, shaking his head. "It was ruined before the nasty vampire hit the floor."

Buffy put down the drumstick and approached everyone rather bemused and Angel hurried towards her.

"Buffy you okay?" asked Angel.

"Yes, what happened?" asked Giles urgently.

"Uh, there were these vamps out…" she looked around, "what's going on?"

"Oh, um…surprise party," said Giles, and blew on a party favor rather lamely.

"Happy birthday," said Cordelia, trying to salvage some of the atmosphere again.

"You guys did all this for me?" asked Buffy and a megawatt smile appeared on her face that never failed to give Xander tingles down his spine. _What an odd sensation,_ said Data. _It's nice though_. "That is so sweet."

"Are you okay?" said Willow worriedly to Oz, who was still staring rather curiously at the ash on the floor.

"Yeah," said Oz, in an unfazed tone, "Hey did everybody see that guy turn to dust?"

"Uh, well, uh…sort of," said Willow uncomfortably.

"Yes, vampires are real, so are a lot of other bad things that you probably don't wish to know about, but should, a lot of vamps make Sunnydale their home because it is situated over Boca del Infernio, Willow will tell you the rest," said Xander.

"I know it's hard to accept at first," said Willow warily.

"Actually," said Oz, with a considering expression, "it explains a lot."

At this point Ms Calendar entered carrying a rather large old wooden box. "Hey, can someone give me a hand here?" Xander hurried over and relieved her of the burden, setting it down on a table. "Those vampire creeps left it behind."

"What is it?" asked Buffy.

"I have no idea, can it be opened?" asked Giles.

"It's got a release here," said Xander, he flicked the latch and carefully opened it. Inside was a dismembered arm clad in an old form of armor, Buffy stared at it and then turned to Giles in disgust. In that moment, quick as lightning the arm came to life and reached out, and seized Buffy around the throat, and it fingers flexed. She gasped as it cut of her air. Xander rushed over and tried to gain purchase on the fingers to pry them apart. Angel joined the struggle and with him pulling at the lower joint and Xander pulling apart the fingers they managed to break the grip of the arm, pushed it back down into the box and slammed the lid shut.

"I guess the Hellmouth didn't want to feel left out and also sent a gift," said Xander dryly.

"Good Heavens, Buffy, are you all right?" said Giles, rushing over and examining his charge for any injury.

"Yeah," she winced, rubbing her throat, "that thing had major grip."

"What was that?" said Willow.

"It looked like an arm," contributed Oz helpfully, again totally unfazed by a disembodied arm that tries to strangle the life out of the guest of honor.

"It can't be," said Angel aghast, staring at the box. "She wouldn't."

"If you're referring to Drusilla, I guess she's insane enough to do it," said Xander dryly.

"Help files, Xander?" said Buffy expectantly.

"This is a part of a particularly nasty and apocalypse level demon, simply called The Judge," explained Xander.

"How do you know?" asked Angel, curiously.

"I've been brushing up on my demonology," said Xander, staring at the box.

"Anyway," said Angel, "the Judge is a demon brought forth to rid the Earth of the plague of humanity…separate the righteous from the wicked, and to burn the righteous down. I wonder where the rest of his parts are…"

"Still needing backstory here…" said Buffy.

"He couldn't be killed," said Giles, removing his glasses and polishing vigorously, "an entire army was sent against him. Most of them died, but finally they were successful in dismembering him, but not kill him."

"The pieces were scattered…in every corner of the earth," said Angel worriedly.

"And the parts are being assembled and brought here," said Ms Calendar darkly.

"By Drusilla, those were definitely Spike's minions outside," contributed Buffy.

"And when they are reassembled fully that will be it for humanity," said Xander.

"Is anybody else gonna have cake?" said Cordelia, clearly the conversation was way too serious for Queen C.

"We need to get this out of town," said Giles.

"Angel," said Ms Calendar.

"What?" said Buffy doubtfully.

"You have to do it," said Ms Calendar to Angel, "you're the only one who can easily leave at a moment's notice and protect this thing." Xander narrowed his eyes shrewdly at Jenny, it was rather Machiavellian and opportunistic, but this would certainly solve the Soul Curse problem until he could finish the translation and Enyos could then work on recasting the thing by the time Angel got back. Xander glanced at Giles and saw that he also saw the subtext of what was happening.

"What about me?" said Buffy indignantly.

"What about you?" said Jenny, "are you gonna just skip town for a few months?"

"Months?!"

"She's right," said Angel, looking convinced, "I gotta get this to the remotest region possible."

"But that's not months," objected Buffy, as Angel walked over to her, a tender expression on his face.

"I have to get a cargo ship to Asia, maybe trek to Nepal," he explained.

"You know, those newfangled flying machines are really much safer than they used to be," she pointed out.

"I can't fly," said Angel, shaking his head, "there's no sure way to guard against daylight in a plane. I-I – I don't like this any more than you do. But there's no other choice."

"When?"

"Tonight, as soon as possible."

"But it's my birthday," said Buffy, pouting slightly.

"I'll drive you to the docks," offered Ms Calendar.

"They're right, Buffy," said Xander, looking troubled. "This piece of the Judge cannot be allowed to fall into Drusilla's hands. With this piece safe, her entire plan is ruined, and in the meantime we can plan to find and assault their stronghold…wherever that is, and get the other pieces as well…perhaps I can even find a way to destroy the Judge permanently."

Buffy frowned and reluctantly nodded, seeing the logic in the plan. "But I'm coming with to see you off properly." Angel grabbed the box and the three walked out, leaving a rather crappy feeling group of Scoobies in their wake.

"We just never get a break, do we?" said Xander, ripping off his party hat in chucking it to the ground in disgust.

"Life on the Hellmouth," commented Willow glumly.

"Well, let's gather up the condiments, and make off to the library, we need to do some research on the Judge," declared Giles.

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It was a familiar scene in Sunnydale High Library. Xander, Giles and Willow were all seated around a desk, and said desk was piled with every book that could possibly contain mention of The Judge, which was a lot…seeing as how the somewhat phyrric victory against the Judge in the Middle Ages was a big event.

Xander was of course breezing through the books as fast as a computer, and when he had exhausted his own supply, nipped some books that were on the others piles and went through those. This of course, never failed to cause Willow to send looks of fitful envy at him.

"They should be back by now," commented Giles, not looking up from his book.

"Maybe Buffy needs to pull herself together," lamented Willow sadly, "poor Buffy, and on her birthday and everything."

"Yes," nodded Xander absently as he added the info he had gathered into his occult database and began keyword searches, "let's hope they keep their eye on the ball though. Drusilla, thanks to her 'mad precognitive' visions, no doubt knows that we have the box, and that her plan to end the world is in jeopardy."

"Probably," said Willow worriedly, "let's hope her Inner Eye misses it."

"Willow!" said Xander in mock anger. "Do not use the 'H' word. You've just jinxed us."

"Sorry," she moaned, wincing.

It was at this point that Buffy entered. Xander took one look at her and groaned in exasperation. "They got the box back, didn't they?"

"Yeah," said Buffy, sniffing and rubbing her wet hair and standing awkwardly on the spot in completely wet clothes.

"What happened?" sighed Giles, polishing his glasses.

"Dru's guys ambushed us, and the klepto vamp sneaked up and made off with it," explained Buffy.

"Where's Jenny?" asked Giles with worry.

"Uh, she took Angel to get some clothing, we both fell into the water at the docks, and I had some here," she explained. "What do we know?" indicating the books.

"The more we study the Judge the less I like him," said Giles mildly, "his touch can literally burn the humanity out of you. A true creature of evil can survive the process. No human ever has."

"Can this guy be stopped, without an army?" asked Buffy pointedly.

"Apparently, 'no weapon forged can kill him'," quoted Xander thoughtfully.

"Yes, it's not very encouraging," said Giles, "if we could only stop them from assembling him."

"We need to find his weak spots, everyone and anything has them," said Buffy firmly, "and we need to figure out where they'd be keeping him."

"Better do a round robin, Willow," said Xander with a smile.

"Good call," nodded Buffy, as Willow headed to the phone.

"Round robin?" asked Giles bemusedly.

"It's when everybody calls everybody else's mom and tells them they're staying at everyone's house," explained Buffy.

"Thus freeing us up for world saveage."

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It was nearing midnight and the research was continuing hot and heavy. Xander and Willow were busy sorting the books already searched back into their places, whilst looking for any new relevant material.

"I can't get over how cool Oz was over all this," said Willow eventually.

"Yes, the ease with which he accepted it is…strange in itself, perhaps he already has had some limited experience with the supernatural already," mused Xander.

"Angel? Any luck?" said Giles from his own position at the table. The vampire with a soul came down out of the stacks from sneaking in through the window. The Watcher glanced into his office and noticed that Buffy was asleep…he instantly shushed what Angel was going to say. "Seems Buffy needed some rest," he whispered.

"Yeah, she hasn't been sleeping well," said Angel, Xander started and stared at the vampire in alarm, as did the others, how did he know? "She _told _me. Because of her dreams?"

"Yes, it seems that way," agreed Giles. "Slayer Portents as a whole are taxing things. They are powerful and take quite a lot out of the Slayer, it is the price one must pay for them."

"NO! Angel!" came an anguished shout from the office. The vampire and Giles rushed to her aid. Xander frowned grimly…things were coming to a head.

"Ok, let's think this through rationally," said Xander collecting himself, "'no weapon forged' that rules out swords, axes, and pretty much everything medieval."

"Guns then?" said Willow.

"No, because the most of the parts of the weapon is made of parts of metal, which goes through a forge at one point or another," said Xander. "But if we take that statement literally…then we need a weapon that is…I've got it," he said triumphantly.

"What, what?" said Willow in frustation, as Xander pulled out his communicator.

"Xander to Dawn."

"_Dawn here_," came her voice through with an irritated huff.

"Ooo, sorry Dawnster, you were regenerating," winced Xander, "but this is an emergency, I need you to head over to DWX. I finished the new computer. Hook it up and I want you to assemble…and this is important, _assemble, _a Starfleet Type 3 Phaser Rifle. Replicate the parts individually, and put them together by hand."

"_Why? It would be easier to just Replicate the whole thing as one,_" said Dawn indignantly.

"Listen, Dawn-patrol, we've got an apocalypse demon on the loose and he can't be killed by ordinary weapons, but I believe it can die if the weapon is constructed with a certain method."

"_Oh, all right, I'll sneak out and get busy, it should take me about an hour, Dawn out,_" the line went dead. It was then that Buffy and Angel streaked out of the office towards the library cage containing the weapons.

"Buffy, what's happened?" asked Giles urgently, following her.

"She had another dream," said Angel as they each grabbed a bladed weapon.

"I think I know where Spike and Drusilla are," said Buffy, striding out of the cage toward Giles.

"That's very good," nodded Giles, "thanks no doubt to your Slayer Portent, however, you do need a plan. I know you're concerned Buffy, but you can't just go off half-cocked."

"I have a plan," said Buffy in determination. "Angel and I go to the factory and do recon, figure out how far they've gotten to assembling the Judge. You guys check any places the boxes could be coming into town. Shipping yards, airports, anything. We need to stop them from getting all the boxes in one place."

"Yes, um, that' actually quite a good plan," admitted Giles.

"But you are forgetting something," said Xander with a finger raised, "what if the box we lost, _was_ the last piece, and Drusilla has the Judge re-assembled already. In that case, those blades you have will be useless, and you can't engage the Judge in a hand fight, the instant you lay a hand on him you will be severely weakened if not die immediately."

"We don't know that the Judge is reassembled, that's what we have to find out first," argued Buffy.

"C'mon, Buffy, this is the Hellmouth, since when has it ever given us a break and not made the worst possible thing happen as soon as it can?" asked Xander pointedly.

"Well, you have a point," admitted Buffy.

"And I believe I figured out a way to permanently destroy the Judge," said Xander. "If you will wait a little more than an hour, the means will be delivered."

"But we can't wait, this thing is out there, it's nasty and its out to destroy the world, an hour could make all the difference," said Buffy, she grabbed her bag and she and Angel disappeared through the main doors of the Library.

"Much impatience I sense in her," said Xander, his voice remodulated and speaking in a perfect replica of Yoda, "lead to disaster, it will."

"Quite," said Giles, shaking his head. "What means is this to destroy the Judge?" Xander explained quickly, shaking off his Yoda voice. "Ingenius," said Giles. "Of course, when the Judge was around there were no weapons that didn't come from a forge. Today is different."

"I should head to DWX and assist Dawn," said Xander, "it will go faster. Even if the Judge is in pieces, I could still take them out, and Spike and Drusilla in the bargain."

"That's good Xander, always have a backup plan," nodded Giles, "off you go, hurry."

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**Spike's Warehouse.**

Xander stared at his Tricorder, yep, Buffy was in there. 'There' was a large two story decrepit and abandoned warehouse, like so many places in the Industrial Sector of Sunnydale…it was odd that there were so many. Xander knew that Californian Industry was smarting for space to expand, so why did so places stay empty. He shook off his musings and put the Tricorder away and sped towards the outer wall, and immediately found the fire escape ladder and climbed it as silently as possible. He crouched along the walkway that allowed people on the second floor to escape; he stared down as a vampire minion of Spike patrolled under him…_damn, I timed that perfectly_.

He slowly moved to a window and glanced in out of the corner. His vision shifted to accommodate the low light and he assessed the scene below.

It looked like Drusilla was throwing a party, there were streamers and all sorts of decorations everywhere, even TV sets were mounted on the walls and on poles and they were showing grisly horror scenes.

Drusilla herself stood with Spike next to her, and behind them the Judge, in all his blue ugly glory fully reassembled._ I hate it when I'm right_ he thought. _I thought you would like the opposite_, said Data. Xander didn't respond. The Judge had very solid looking armor on and two small horns sticking out of his forehead._ I would hypothesize that the armor is what makes him so invulnerable_ said Data. _Hence the reason he could be dismembered_.

Xander internally agreed. Unfortunately the situation was more complicated, as it seemed Buffy and Angel had got themselves captured. They were surrounded by vamp minions and facing off against the Gruesome Twosome and the Judge. _This is not good._ Angel was being held back by two vamps.

"The girl," said the Judge in an ugly grating voice, pointing at Buffy.

"Chilling, isn't it? She's so full of good intention," said Drusilla.

"Take me!" shouted Angel immediately. _This is now very bad_. If the Judge got his hands on Angel, there goes the Soul.

"No!" objected Buffy.

"Take me instead of her!" shouted Angel hoarsely, struggling against his captors.

"Uh, you're not clear on this concept, pal," scoffed Spike, "there is no instead, just first and second."

"And you go first you don't get to watch the Slayer die," said Drusilla airily. Angel's captors began to pull him back and Buffy fell into a ready stance. Angel however, clearly had a plan.

"Don't touch him!" warned Angel, and managed to push off his two captors, in the meantime Buffy had had no choice but to kick the Judge, knocking the big demon off balance. Angel had in the meantime slashed through the nearby chains that held up the group of TV monitors, which were rather conveniently right over the Judge's head. The entire weight smashed on top of the demon's head, and was enough to send the floor beneath its feet into pieces as well. Angel had already opened a nearby manhole cover.

"In here!" He let Buffy jump first and fell down out of view, the cover snapping on in place behind them.

"Go!" ordered Drusilla, causing the vamp minions to open the cover again and drop down in pursuit.

"Arrgghh," came the deep moan of anger, and the Judge clawed its way powerfully up from the hole in the floor.

"Looking a mite dusty there mate," said Spike, dusting off the cloak of the Judge. Xander grinned, now was the perfect opportunity.

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"Leave me alone," growled the Judge, causing Spike to back off. "I need energy, prey, if I'm too get too full power again."

"And you'll get it mate, don't worry," said Spike.

"No, I rather think not," said Xander, emerging from the deep shadows.

"Oh, one of the Slayer's whelps, see," said the Billy Idol wannebee to the Judge, "there's your first meal." But the Judge frowned at Xander as if he was struggling to see him.

"I sense very little, almost nothing from him," said the Judge.

"What?" asked Spike in confusion.

"Oh, oh," moaned Drusilla, "the White Kitten is now all klinky and shiny." Her eyes far away.

"What?" said Spike again.

"I would love to play twenty questions about what I am, but you see, that's not why I'm here," said Xander, shaking his head. He reached into his leather trenchcoat and produced the Starfleet Type 3 Phaser Rifle, leveling it at the Judge. It's plastic gleamed in the overhead lights and whizzed powerfully as it powered up.

"Yeah, right, Harris," snorted Spike, "you think a plastic toy is going to save you from big blue here."

"Fool," snarled the Judge, "no weapon forged can harm me."

"Yes, that's true," said Xander to the Judge, "but you see, this weapon has not been anywhere near a forge. Welcome to the twenty first century!" Xander triggered the Rifle and huge ball of energy erupted out of the muzzle, it whizzed as quick as a bullet and hit the Judge square amidships, there was a bright flash of light and when it faded…all that was left of the once mighty demon was a scorchmark on the floor and trinkle of ashes. "Damn," said Xander, shaking the weapon, "note to self, never discharge Phaser on Level 16 pulse setting without adequate charge time." He slung the weapon back into his trenchcoat and laughed at the expression on Spike's face. He was staring in astonishment at the spot where the Judge had been, and Drusilla was on her knees and crying like a little girl who just had her party ruined.

"Bad shiny kitten, bad," she moaned.

"What the bloody hell was that?" snarled Spike, getting his bearings.

"That was a Federation issue Type 3 Phaser Rifle," said Xander mildly, with a small grin.

"That's impossible…you…that…" and abruptly the Bleached Wonder's face paled. "Halloween."

"Ding, ding, ding, that's Jeopardy folks," mimicked Xander with an evil grin.

"Hmmph," mused Spike, "so you've got the Android's marbles, yeah. That won't save you from me, mate."

"Please, go ahead," invited Xander, gesturing with his hands, "I'll even tell you that blast drained my Phaser, I can't use it again without a recharge."

"Oh this is gonna be fun," said Spike, spitting into his hands.

"NO!" shouted Drusilla, grabbing a hold of her boyfriend's arm. "Kitten is all Shiny now, my Spikey will go as dust into the wind if he tries to kill the Kitten."

"I don't understand what that means, Dru, speak plainly for once in your life," demanded Spike. "Dammit," as Drusilla only moaned and whimpered at her boyfriend's anger. "You ruined my Dru's birthday party. You're going to pay for that!" Spike charged as the Master Vampire he was. He blinked as Xander met his charge halfway with even greater speed. He attempted to vicious chop with the side of his hand that would probably have taken anybody else's head off with the force of it. However, Spike blinked when he found his hand was nowhere near the target…his eyes widened as he saw that Xander had intercepted his striking arm before it could even follow through. He immediately tried to pull himself out of Xander's grip, but he might as well have tried to spit against the wind.

Xander smiled mildly at Spike and simply did a forward flat palm strike on the vampire chest that sent him flying backwards and crashing into one the metal support struts of the warehouse, denting it rather neatly.

"Pain is a good teacher isn't it," said Xander with a big grin.

Spike wearily got up and spat out blood from his mouth. "You're still him."

"Guilty as charged," said Xander with a shrug. "Be very grateful I was in such a hurry that I forgot my other weapons. Otherwise we wouldn't be talking now. I could still easily kill you two suckheads without much effort. But I want you to savor this moment of defeat…I want it to sink in a little first. I want you to know that I can find you at any time and end your unlives in the pull of a trigger. I want you to feel the terror that you inspire in humans as you hunt…"

Xander abruptly turned and lashed out with a fist, that doubled over the vampire minion that had been sneaking up on him. He maneuvered the vampire deftly in front of him, wrapped his arm around its head and pulled in opposite directions…the vampire's head popped off easily and dissolved into dust in Xander's arms. He contemptuously brushed it off.

"Run off now little mosquitoes, shoo," he motioned with his hands. Spike didn't need telling twice, he grabbed Drusilla and fled out into the night.

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"Are you sure that was wise?" asked Dawn, joining him on the balcony of DWX office building as he stared up into the night. Clouds were rapidly gathering over the town…this was not a natural event, clouds never assembled so quickly. "Letting them go."

"No, I suppose not," said Xander. "I honestly don't know what came over me. This anger at all the lives they took, the misery and terror they inspired over the past few centuries just descended upon me. Suddenly, merely staking them and getting it over and done with wouldn't satisfy me. It would be too good for them."

The clouds had finished gathering and deep rumblings could be heard from within.

"Buffy and Angel?"

"They managed to get out Ok, I think that Buffy will be feeling under the weather for a while, she had to kick the Judge to get away," explained Xander.

"So it's over, you think the Gruesome Twosome will leave because of the threat you now pose to them?"

"No," said Xander, shaking his head, as the lightning descended in rapid bolts across the town. "The storm is only beginning."

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A/N: Long overdue, but I've finally decided on how to proceed with this part of the storyline.


	5. Chapter 5 Phases

**Chapter 5 – Phases**

**DWX Innovations**

On the main lab floor, Xander stood scowling at the screen terminal, which was currently hooked up to the Duotronic computer, which was currently linked directly into his own positronic systems. It must've looked extremely bizarre to the layman…a data cable stuck directly into the base of his own skull. He tapped the touchpad controls, which now used the LCARS system to begin another diagnostic on his memory and synaptic activity…just in case.

"Hey Xan," said Dawn, walking into the lab. He couldn't help but give her an appreciative glance…those damn skintight bodysuits. She had just come from Casa Summers after what was no doubt an awful long whining session with her mother, and a decent explanation for why she had snuck out.

"Hey," he grumped, "your mother give you any trouble?"

"A bit," conceded Dawn, but then grinned, "then I explained about the Judge and what would've happened had we not taken him down as soon as possible…and reason set in."

"Good, I really don't want to your mom to go Darth Summers on us," said Xander. "Any news from Buffy?"

"We passed each other, I was leaving for here, and she got back from…wherever she went after escaping from the Judge, mentioned that you had taken care of it," explained Dawn.

"One less worry on the Hellmouth," he said absently.

"What's the matter, Xan?" she gestured to the interface cable leading into his skull.

"Hmmm, oh," he said distractedly, "yes, Data noticed an anomaly in my synaptic activity this morning."

"What kind of anomaly?" she said worriedly.

"Take a look," said Xander, tapping the controls and highlighting the event in his memory engrams on the screen for her to see.

"That's during…" she trailed off, unsure what to make of it.

"…my fight last night against Spike," confirmed Xander. "Notice the anomalous spike in the emotional quotient index…"

"That's impossible!" said Dawn.

"I know, yet it was clearly done," said Xander. "Such a…manipulation…could've been done by Dr. Soong, but even he would need physical access to my systems. No, this could only be the work of Q himself or some of the 'others' that are native to this space-time he talked about."

"Guess they don't like their little schemes not going according to plan," she scowled.

"Seems that way," said Xander. "I'm going to install a guardian program within me and isolate it from my main positronic pathways. Theoretically, it should remain independent and the moment it detects tampering with me, it will immediately act to rectify the tampering afterward."

"Should work, but what if they simply interfere with the guardian as well," she pointed out.

"Then I don't know what the point is then, is free will just two empty words?"

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**Sunnydale High**

The Scoobies minus one Vampire Slayer met up again in the library before school was due to start for the day, where Xander reported that the Judge had gone the way of the Dodo, in addition to the seemingly 'higher' intervention that stopped him from dusting Spike and Drusilla.

"While I am arguably relieved to hear that the Judge is no longer of concern, but the meddling you uncovered in your mind does not bode well," said Giles worriedly.

"Yeah," agreed Willow looking weary, "I mean if these 'higher powers' can do it that easily to Xander, what's to stop them from doing it to us…"

"…maybe I am just an exception," said Xander, raising his hands. "Because of Q's meddling?"

"It's probable," agreed Giles, looking thoughtful. "However, of more immediate concern is Buffy. She still hasn't reported in."

"Dawn said she saw her at Casa Summers this morning, so no worries," assured Xander. "We still have to have that conversation with her about Angel though…"

"No better time than now I suppose," nodded Giles.

At that moment, Buffy finally walked into the library looking…it seemed to be a blend between worried and confused.

"Buffy!" said Willow happily. "You OK? Xander mentioned you were affected by the Judge…"

"I'm fine," she said, waving her hand in dismissive gesture. "Felt like I had a major cold afterwards for a while…but, I'm fine."

"Where's Angel?" asked Ms Calendar.

"He didn't check in with you guys?" asked Buffy with a frown.

"No," said Giles shaking his head. "Why didn't you call, Buffy? We were worried…Xander, do remember we need communicators for everyone."

"No problem," nodded Xander, "now that we have the Replicator on line we can make combadges or something similarly small that would blend in."

"Well," said Buffy, as the attention turned back to her, "we, uh, had to hide. We got stuck in the sewer tunnels, and with the hiding, we just split up…uh, no one's heard from him?"

"I'm sure he'll come by," said Willow reassuringly.

"Buffy, a m-m-matter has come to my attention regarding Angel," said Giles, looking uncomfortable and glancing at Xander briefly.

"What is it?"

"Th-through a contact I have learned that a Gypsy Seer…incidentally from the same clan that cursed Angelus with a soul, h-h-has seen that the curse is…f-fading," said Giles gravely, removing his glasses and polishing them.

"You mean…what? That his soul is…"

"The curse is what keeps the soul of Liam Mckenna, attached to his body, if it fades completely then that means Angelus the Master Vampire takes over control…" explained Giles gently.

"B-b-but…why now? How is the curse fading?" asked Willow in alarm.

Giles sighed deeply and wearily said, "the Gypsy believe that…you must understand, the curse was a revenge on the demon Angelus, it's there for vengeance, to inflict the emotions of Liam; the remorse, the guilt of all those deaths on the demon. The specific human emotions that no demon wants to ever experience. Buffy's relationship with Angel is doing the opposite…providing him happiness."

"Let me get this straight," said Buffy her eyes narrowing, "you're telling me that if Angel feels happy…he loses more of his soul? That's ridiculous!"

"No, no," said Giles raising his hands, "the Gypsy indicated that if Angel ever experienced a moment of _pure_ happiness…the curse would fail completely and Angel would once again become Angelus."

Xander watched in concern as Buffy shot out of her chair and started pacing back and forth. She looked distinctly angry, however thankfully, it didn't seem to be directed at anyone specifically, yet. "So what you're saying is that I can't be with Angel anymore."

"It would be wise to…avoid seeing him, at least until Xander can get the original curse cast on Angelus translated and then the Gypsy can renew the curse without the 'happiness' clause in it."

Buffy stopped pacing and abruptly grabbed her bag and walked towards the doors, "Got to go…classes."

Xander was sure he was imagining it, but it was his impression that she was…running away from them.

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The day passed uneventfully with normal boring school, however that evening saw Xander, Giles, Willow and surprisingly Cordelia gathered to research any mention of the 'higher' powers. When asked why she said, 'I wanna know if any Q-like being can influence me. The mere thought of anyone manipulating Cordelia Chase…" she said darkly, her eyes turning into the menacing glare that would probably make even a vampire cower before her. Xander knew it was an exaggeration but…damn, can that girl glower. Willow however, was on the phone with Buffy, who had apparently gone out to try to find Angel…the vampire had yet to appear.

"Ok. No, no, he didn't," said Willow into the phone, "but I'm sure he'll…Buffy, this is Angel. He wouldn't just leave you…No. Don't even say that. Angel is not dead! …Yeah, of course we'll be here." She hung up.

"What's the word?" asked Xander looking up from his book.

"She's checked every place she can think of. She even beat up Willy the snitch a few times. Angel's vanished."

"But he does that on occasion, no?" asked Giles reasonably.

"Oh, yeah, but she's extra, extra wigged this time," said Willow with emphasis, "because of her dreams, and now the curse weakening. What if something happened to him?"

"Is she going to come here?"

"Yeah, she's just stopping at home first."

Xander slammed the book he was reading shut. "Nothing, Giles…these books only mention the lower deities that apparently want nothing to do with this plane of existence anymore, unless you actively summon them, like Ethan Rayne did with Janus."

"You must understand Xander, that matters on the level that we are talking about go way beyond the scope of mortal comprehension," explained Giles astutely. "As such, anything written on the actions of the 'Powers that Be' so the speak, is pure speculation. It's theorized by the Watchers Council that they have a hand in choosing who will become the next Slayer, but nothing is really known beyond that."

"Damn," snarled Xander, tossing the heavy book to the desk.

Before it landed with a heavy thud on the desk…the lights went out.

"Blast…did the school forget to pay the power bill again," said Giles, and stumbled forward through the library and left to check the breaker box in the hall. Xander glared at the floor, his anger at the fact that there was nothing that really could be done coming to the fore…he checked his guardian program…nope…this was his own anger.

The lights came back on…and a startled gasp came from Cordelia. Xander looked up and blinked in astonishment.

Willow, who was standing at the main counter where the phone was, stood dead still and stiff…the reason for this was apparent as Angel was now suddenly behind her…his hand clutched around her neck from behind.

"Angel, what are you doing?" asked Cordelia in confusion.

Xander frowned as he saw the expression on the vampire's face…it was one of malice, glee…a look never seen on Angel.

"You're not Angel anymore are you?" said Xander, moving slightly forward.

"Give the Trek boy a prize," smirked Angelus. "Ah, ah," he admonished, tightening his grip on Willow's neck, "don't move, I'll snap her neck like a twig before you could even blink."

"Oh my goodness…your soul," said Cordelia in horror.

"Yes, gone, finally!" said Angelus gleefully, his eyes glinting. "I've got a message for Buffy."

"Why don't you give it to me yourself?" said the Slayer in question, who had appeared standing at the main door, with Giles behind her.

Angelus turned quickly, effectively using Willow as a human shield from all of them.

"Well, it's not really the kind of message you tell. It sort of involves finding the bodies of all your friends." The vampire tightened the grip on Willow even further and she let out a pained yelp, tears of despair streaming down her face.

"This can't be you," said Buffy lightly, as if she did not believe what she was seeing.

"We already covered that subject," said Angelus dryly.

"Angel, there must be some part of you who remembers who you are."

"Dream on, schoolgirl," said the vampire in disbelief. Xander felt something being pushed against his hand from behind…it was wooden and he didn't need any encouragement to spring into action…in a blur of movement he grabbed and flung what he realized was a cross directly at Angelus.

The vampire, clearly showing that he was a Master, reached out with blinding speed to catch it, clearly thinking it was a stake. Too late did he realize that it was a cross and he screamed in pain as the symbol of faith burned his hand…causing him to let go of Willow. Buffy was ready for it and rushed forward to pull her dazed friend away from the vampire, while Xander and Giles converged on Angelus.

Giles shoved another cross in Angelus' face, preventing the vampire from recovering after he had dropped the thrown cross. Xander sent a kick directly into the midsection of the vampire sending Angelus flying through the library doors. They rushed out into the hall, but Angelus had already recovered and was seen sprinting around the far corner in retreat.

"Damn, that bastard is fast," said Xander, shaking his head. They returned to the library where Cordelia and Buffy were already tending to a rather shocked Willow; livid bruises already forming on her neck.

"Are you all right?" asked Giles urgently.

"Fine…" wheezed Willow, clutching at her neck.

Xander rushed into the library cage and brought out the emergency medical kit that Giles always kept ready. _Now that the Replicator is functioning we can start building the sickbay at DWX, not to mention standard 24__th__ C. medkits_, commented Data.

_Yeah, but we're a far cry from a 24__th__ C. Doctor,_ thought Xander back, _we'd either need to recruit a suitably open minded Doctor from this century to learn how medicine is done in the future, or program an EMH_.

_Both are good ideas and should be pursued._

"Good thinking with the cross," said Xander to Cordelia, as Giles efficiently began to patch Willow up.

"Good throw," countered Cordelia, "I started to carry it around ever since I learned the status quo in this town."

"Well, thank goodness for your sense of self-preservation," said Giles with a sigh, and closed the med kit. "Now there's the big question we must address. What do we do now? Angel knows us very well, and now that will be used by Angelus to attack us."

"We warn everyone who doesn't know yet, for starters, that's Ms Calendar, Dawn, Oz, and Mrs Summers," said Xander.

"I'll do it," said Buffy woodenly and headed to the phone.

"The Scourge of Europe reunited," said Giles grimly, closing his eyes. "I shudder to think what's in store for us and the world."

"You mean they're going to try more worldendy stuff?" moaned Willow

"I do," said Giles, "Drusilla had to go through a lot of trouble to reunite the pieces of the Judge. Now that that plan is foiled she will set her sights on something bigger, and now with Angelus to help…"

"There's also the matter of how vicious and cunning Angelus is," said Xander darkly, "I've read the materials and Watcher Diaries that mention him before he got cursed with a soul. I'm talking about Hannibal Lecter style evil mixed in a with a side of Psycho, not to mention his tendency to use psychological warfare against his enemies…which is oh-so-lucky us now."

"Meaning he will strike where it hurts us the most, and he told us as much with his visit," said Giles.

"Then we must be ready for him, but what I would like to know is what could've happened between yesterday and now that could've caused him to lose his soul? How did he experience true happi…"

"Xander, shut up," said Willow suddenly. He snapped his eyes to hers; they glanced whether involuntarily or not, directly at Buffy who had just put down the phone. It was only when Data delivered his own observation that Xander's eyes widened in realization. His lips thinned and he tried mightily to keep a look of disgust off his face as he looked at the Slayer.

"Bad news," said Buffy, shaking her head. "Ms Calendar told me to tell Xander that 'Enyos is dead.' She said you would understand."

"When it rains it pours," said Xander, running his hand through his hair. "Fuck!"

"Language, Xander," chided Giles.

"Sorry, but Enyos is the name of the Gypsy that contacted me," explained Xander with a sigh. "And he was the only person in this hemisphere who could've even attempted to recast the Soul Curse on Angelus. So at this point, it doesn't even matter if we translate it…"

"There's no one with the skill to do it," nodded Giles in understanding. "In summation, we're buggered."

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**Sunnydale Park**

It was late night in the acres large municipal park. The moonlight glinted off the high boughs of the trees and left large areas of darkened void. High bushes were dotted everywhere. In other words, the place was a perfect hunting ground for the demonic, eager to pick off the odd unwary human or the couples who parked their cars here to make out.

Therefore, this is where Xander and Dawn usually began their patrol whenever they went out. It was the first time in a week that they had patrolled together, as they had after hard work finally built and installed the EPS system throughout the DWX campus and buildings. With this in place, work could finally begin on making DWX into a proper '24th Century base'; Xander would work on the new organic/isolinear computer core, whilst Dawn and Willow would work on Transporters and a Sickbay.

However, some things had to receive immediate attention, especially with the Angel/Angelus situation. Dawn and Xander had made for the rest of the Scoobies 'defense packages'. This was a basic Starfleet medkit (which when explained even a layman could use), the type 1 mini-phaser, the bigger handheld type 2, tricorder (it took a few lessons for the Scoobies to get a grasp of them, especially Giles and Buffy), and the new 'comjewelry'; which took the form of either a ring, necklace, earring, and pocket pen (for Giles).

Dawn had opted for having both a com-necklace and a com-earring. Xander however decided to err on the side of caution and did a minor bit of self engineering and had a combadge integrated into himself ('How many times have the bad guys taken away the combadge? Leaving our poor intrepid away team stranded with no way to signal for help,' Xander had argued to Dawn, when she had objected to his meddling with his own systems.)

Speaking of which, Xander glanced up from his open tricorder and at her striding next to him…he only caught a tantalizing glimpse of that bodysuited figure of hers, as she had added a long black trenchcoat to her demon-hunting wardrobe, to better disguise her UMP and the Type 3 Phaser rifle she was carrying slung over her shoulders.

"Xander," said Dawn, coming to a stop. Oh, oh, her tone indicated she had caught him snooping. He stopped and turned to face her. She had a wry, knowing expression on her face. Damn. "You've seen me in full bodysuits that hugs every curve I have, why …" she trailed off.

"…can't I stop staring?" said Xander bluntly. She nodded. "Well…its coz now I can't see you…properly. It's just seems like such a…sin, to cover something so beautiful." Xander bit his lip and stared fixedly at the ground. Dawn could see his face darkening with a blush…for a moment she was amazed that his body still had the ability to do so, when her own face grew hot and a shiver went down her spine. Of course, she knew she was a 'knockout' now thanks to her 'Halloween' transformation but she tried mightily to not to let it go to her head, and Seven's memories helped a lot in that regard. She had no intention of starting to act like Cordelia and her Cordettes.

"Damn," moaned Dawn and her shoulders drooped, "ever since Halloween…you don't know how much…"

"You've been feeling it too?" said Xander in astonishment.

"Yes, damn it, I know I had this silly childhood crush thing…but now that I've caught up in age with you I thought it would go away…but it didn't, it changed…and whenever we start technobabbling at each other at DWX, working together trying to solve some or other problem…I just wanna smooch your brains out…"

"Ditto, I guess there is something after all to that saying 'the mind is the most important se…you know'" breathed Xander heavily, "but…I don't fancy having Buffy turn me into scrap, nor your Mother…if we get together…"

"They'd freak," agreed Dawn with a sigh, "unless…I could have a talk with my mom…explain that, I've begun feeling my apparent age…sound her out…"

"It could be done," conceded Xander, "but for the Galaxy's sake, leave me out of that conversation…as it is I think they'd know why you are asking…"

Any further conversation was interrupted when a frantic scream sounded in the distance. The hunting duo stared at each other for a moment and then sprinted as fast they could towards the scream. Dawn brought up her Phaser rifle in a guard position as they ran, whilst Xander did the same with the UMP. This covered a huge range of dealing with the possible nasties they could face.

They burst through the thicket and encountered a parked convertible. Inside was a shadowy couple who was alternately screaming and fumbling around inside the car. The reason for this was obvious. Crouching atop the car was a slouched gray hairy being, if it stood to its full height it would probably be six feet, it had menacing looking claws at the ends of powerful limbs and was snarling and growling down into the car. Its snout was taught and hackles bared.

"Fascinating," said Xander idly.

Dawn took her cue as the beast raised a limb for another swipe at the occupants below; her rifle spat a singeing orange beam that hit the beast on its flank. It was flung off the roof with a yelp and landed in a nearby bush, it was heard whining and then the thumping of heavy feet. A glance at his tricorder showed it was retreating and not coming around.

"Good call on the use of Stun," said Xander with an approving grin.

Dawn beamed at him. "Yes, well, we better find out who it actually is though…hopefully he or she's just as much a victim of the curse and doesn't glorify in it."

"Xander, Dawn?" came a startled voice from the car, and the owner poked her head out the window into the light of the full moon overhead.

"Cordelia," nodded Xander, "where's your mini…weapon?" He glanced at her current 'boyfriend' and saw…yes, football team member, no surprise there.

"It was in my purse," she said in irritation, "but Mr Coordination here," she jerked a thumb to her now soon to be 'ex-boyfriend' judging by the snarl on her face, "knocked open my purse in fright and spilled its contents all over the floor in here."

"Oh, I see," said Xander with a nod, "well, I suggest you keep it in a concealed place on yourself at all times."

"Try hiding it in your cleavage," smirked Dawn.

"Anyway," interrupted Xander pulling the conversation away from that topic, "Dawn and I will try to see if we can catch it, perhaps it would be best if you go home Cordelia."

"Oh, yeah, good luck," said Queen C and soon after her car was spitting earth behind its tires as she drove hurriedly out of the park.

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**Sunnydale High – Parking Lot**

The next day found the Scoobies plus Giles examining Cordelia's car. Xander was surreptitiously using his tricorder to scan the vehicle for any residues on it, and a very curious Oz was looking over his shoulder at the 24th Century scanning device. Oz had received full disclosure on DWX and its work, thanks to Willow.

It seemed that their relationship was coming out of the awkward stage and into the early physical stage of handholding and caresses. Xander didn't begrudge Willow's decision to tell Oz, since it seemed like the musician was in it for the long haul and he was a good guy who hardly seemed to be fazed by anything. A murderous Angelus could be in front of the guy and his only comment would probably be 'Nice fangs.'

"So you think you saw an actual werewolf?" asked Buffy, examining the hole and claw marks in roof.

"Yes, what I saw last night matches the descriptions in my Occult database," said Xander thoughtfully staring at the Tricorder results; it was picking out animal DNA and fibers consistent with a canine species, but none which exactly matched any known wolf or dog genus. "Six feet, canine face and snout, hunched over, basically a hybrid between man and wolf."

Cordelia snorted in anger. "And my dad just had this car detailed…"

"So what's the word?" asked Buffy of Giles.

"It seems there were a number of other attacks by a wild dog around town," said the Watcher, handing Buffy a newspaper. "Several animal carcasses were found mutilated."

"You mean, like bunnies and stuff?" said a visibly upset Willow, "no, don't tell me."

"Don't worry," said Oz reassuringly, "I mean they may not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves."

"Yeah," said Willow, calming down somewhat.

"Yes, uhm, fortunately, no people were injured," said Giles taking back the newspaper, "but my guess is that this werewolf will be back at next month's full moon."

"You would be wrong in that guess," interjected Xander, snapping his Tricorder shut and pocketing it. "Last night was the 'night before the full moon'. Tonight is the actual 'full moon', with tomorrow night, being 'the night after'. The mystical effect of the full moon remains 'full' for three nights per month."

"Indeed," said Giles raising his eyebrows looking intrigued, "could you tell me which books you referenced that information?" Xander nodded and rattled off a list of seven books on lunar phases and how it related to the magical and occult. "I must admit, having you around Xander is like having a Library on two legs."

"Now that is so not the image I want," protested Xander.

"So what do we do?" asked Willow.

"We're not gonna kill it," said Xander firmly.

"Yes," nodded Giles, "no matter who this werewolf is, it's still a human being, who may be completely unaware of his or her condition."

"So tonight, Xander, Giles and I go out and bring them in alive," said Buffy.

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That evening in the park found the three doing a circuitous patrol. Giles had also gotten himself some 'hunting clothes' for the night, with all black colors and trenchcoat to hide his slung UMP and a Phaser rifle. Xander on the other hand had replicated two semi-automatic Tranquilizer guns for himself and Buffy, filled with a potent sedative that probably wouldn't be invented for another few centuries and would put anything into a deep sleep, supernatural constitution or not. The guns themselves worked on a self-contained compressed air system.

They had thus far passed several cars with couples in them and no sign of the werewolf.

"Anything?" asked Giles quietly, since he was the one limited to normal human vision, whilst Buffy's Slayer sight effectively pierced shadows and Xander's could see in nearly all spectra.

"Not so much as a whisker," said Xander, holding his Tranq gun ready.

"Nada," echoed Buffy.

"I've had a thought that perhaps…we could knock on a few windows, uh, ask if anyone's seen anything," said Giles. Xander and Buffy traded bemused expressions.

"Giles, no one's seen anything," she said confidently.

"Oh yes," said the Watcher uncomfortably in realization, as they passed a car which was slightly rocking on its wheels, "no, of-of-of course not. Yes."

Buffy rolled her eyes and surged ahead to take point, and they headed off into a denser part of the bushes. After a few minutes of struggle, they burst out into a small clearing.

It happened quickly.

The moment Buffy stepped into the center to continue past the clearing, a heavy twang of latch snapping and releasing something heavy was heard. The grass around Buffy erupted with rope that was very efficiently braided into a net. She yelped as the net enveloped her and she was unceremoniously suspended in mid-air.

Xander snapped his Tranq gun towards where the figure whom had undoubtedly set the trap, emerged from the darkness. The unknown hunter had a grim, wild look about him and his all leather clothes showed he had probably hunted the animals who contributed them. The hunter carried of all things an old double-barreled flintlock with the only modern attribute being its scope.

"Gotcha!" smirked the hunter, but his jubilation died quickly when he saw what he had caught, "what the hell?"

"Hey!" snapped Xander, and Giles brought forth his UMP. The hunter automatically trained his flintlock on them in response to the perceived threat.

"Who are you and what are you doing?" asked Giles coldly.

"The name's Cain," said the hunter, his eyes narrowing at the modern UMP and Tranq gun trained on him. "Nice hardware. But I'm not looking to kill ordinary folks."

"Ahem," interrupted Buffy for her uncomfortable position, "before we get all chummy here, how about we do something about me being in this net?"

Cain exhaled, visibly surrendered by putting down his flintlock and leaning it against a boulder. He pulled out a buck-knife and severed the rope holding the net up at a nearby tree. Due to her confinement in the net, Buffy couldn't roll with the fall and her breath was knocked out of her by the impact with the ground. She recovered quickly and struggled out.

"You Ok?" asked Giles, lowering his weapon.

"Yeah," said Buffy ruefully.

"I'm surprised," said Cain, seeing Buffy for the first time, "that you bring out your kids to hunt in a foul place like this."

"They would do so even without my consent," explained Giles, letting the 'kids' remark slide because the Scoobies were his 'kids' of a fashion, his eyes narrowing at Cain.

"Keep 'em under your wing and out of trouble, eh?"

"We're hunting werewolves," said Xander, taking a gamble to see whether or not the man was supernaturally cognizant.

"You don't say," said Cain, staring at Xander's Tranq gun, "looks like you're tryin' to capture the beast."

"I take it you don't?" said Giles shrewdly. Cain reached into the collar of his shirt and pulled out a necklace of teeth.

"I tore a tooth from the mouth of every werewolf that I killed," bragged Cain with a superior smirk. "This next one will bring the total to an even dozen."

"So you're just gonna kill it?" asked Buffy.

"Well, see that's the thing. Their pelts fetch a pretty penny in Sri Lanka, and it's a little hard to skin 'em when they're alive," explained Cain.

"You hunt werewolves for sport?" asked Xander in near disgust.

"No, no, I'm purely in it for the money."

"And it doesn't bother you that the werewolf is a person twenty-eight days out of the month?" said Buffy with her eyes crowing cold, clearly liking Cain less-and-less.

"That's why I hunt 'em the other three. I'd really love to stay and chat," said Cain, and picked up his net, "but I'm on a tight schedule. Any idea where else boys and girls like to get together around here?"

"You're looking for a party?" asked Buffy in confusion.

"No, but the werewolf is. They're suckers for that whole sexual heat thing. Sense it miles away. Since this little doggie ain't here, I guess he found another place."

"Sorry. Wish I could help you," said Buffy, hardly looking it.

"Hmph, thought so," said Cain and walked away and vanished into the bushes.

"The Bronze?" prompted Xander, after he was sure Cain was gone.

"Bronze," nodded Buffy, and they strode off back towards where Giles had parked his Aston.

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It seemed though by the time the Aston pulled to a stop outside the nightclub that the werewolf had most definitely made its presence know, if you were to judge by the screaming patrons that was erupting from the main door and fleeing towards their cars.

"Looks as though both your hunches were right," said Giles, putting the Aston into parking gear.

"Who could resist Sunnydale's own house of hormones?" asked Buffy rhetorically.

Both she and Xander got out keeping their Tranq guns in hand but behind their backs to avoid being spotted with the weapons, it didn't really matter though, judging from the sheer survival panic in the crowd was any indication. Willow emerged from the crowd, her mini-phaser in hand.

"The werewolf is in there," she said breathing heavily, "I tried to Stun but missed…by then…too fast."

"It's ok, Willow," said Xander calmingly. "Get to Giles, he's over there in the Aston." She nodded and rushed off. "Shall we?" he said to Buffy.

She grinned and they both charged towards the main door, which was about to be shut by the Bronze's bouncer.

"Coming through!"

Xander and Buffy managed to squirt through the opening before it was shut behind them in an eerily final manner.

"Damn," said Xander in awe. The Bronze was an absolute mess. It had been trashed by the patrons in their panic to escape its confines; tables and chairs were lying everywhere, spilled drinks were splattered on the floor, in addition to the shattered remains of the glasses that had housed them. They quickly spotted a moving shadow beyond a bead curtain that covered the backstage area. He gave her a gesture to hang back and let him take point.

"I'm the Slayer," she objected, hissing back in a low voice.

"And if you get bitten you will be wolfy Slayer three nights a month, but me…" he trailed off. Her eyes widened in understanding and she nodded ruefully. So Xander took point with their guns digging into their shoulders ready to fire, as they entered the backstage area. Beyond the bead curtains was a small corridor that lead into the stage manager office, which was empty, but the other door led directly onto the stage.

They emerged cautiously onto the stage, and with the curtains closed made for poor lighting. His infrared vision snapped on, and this allowed him to see the werewolf as it emerged from the side curtains, snarling at its two hunters.

"Good doggy," whispered Xander, and there was a muffled spitting sound as his Tranq shot a small syringe of sedative. The wolf showed its dexterity and speed when it dodged. Willow wasn't kidding that it was hard to hit as Buffy also tried, forcing the wolf to crash into the drum set. The two hunters charged forward, their guns shooting syringe after syringe towards the flailing werewolf.

There was a yelp from it and sure enough Buffy had found the mark. A small syringe was sticking out the flank of the wolf.

It managed to get its feet under itself, but the potent sedative was already working and its strength seemed to fail as it tried to stand…with another crash it fell into the remnants of the drumset.

"Cover me," said Xander, and advanced on the slumped form. He cautiously toed away the bass drum that had settled over the head of the werewolf, and carefully examined the beast. He reached into a pocket for his Tricorder and after a scan, relaxed somewhat. "The sedative is working quite well. He should have about seven hours of naptime."

"Good," nodded Buffy, and she fingered her com-earring, which chirped. "Buffy to Giles, we have a sleepy wolf in here, bring in the ropes and muffler."

"_On my way_."

A few minutes later an agitated Giles and Willow arrived with the equipment and began to tie up the werewolf.

"What's the matter?" asked Xander.

"Cain is outside," said the Watcher, latching the muffle over the werewolf's muzzle. "He offered me a percentage commission if we handed the werewolf over to him."

"I hope you told him where to shove it," said Xander unpleasantly.

"I did, but in more polite terms, however we should be on our guard when we move the wolf, I wouldn't put it past the man to try and snatch it from us through some form of trickery or trap."

"Willow, I want you to keep your Tricorder out and scanning at all times as we go," instructed Xander, "make a note of Cain's life sign and keep an eye on it."

"Got it," she nodded and finished a knot over werewolf's rear legs. Finally, when the wolf was as secure as it was ever going to be, Xander and Buffy lifted it rather easily between them. Giles brought the Aston towards the large backstage entrance used for getting equipment into and out of the Bronze. The large double doors were locked, but a powerful android kick from Xander twisted the lock and caused the doors to smack open to either side.

By the time they got to the car, Cain had arrived and was pestering Giles with increasingly lucrative offers for the werewolf. Xander could see that Giles' inner-Ripper was swiftly coming to the fore as he began to lose patience with the hunter.

"Mr Cain, I have told you many times now, no. It's not an issue of money at all. Now please, find yourself some other profitable endeavor…preferably in another town," said Giles fiercely, as the rear door of the Aston was closed with Buffy keeping the wolf under guard.

"Bah," said Cain with an exasperated snarl, "first they tell me I can't elephant for its ivory…now I've got to deal with People for the Ethical Treatment of Werewolves." He turned on his heels and stalked away into the night.

"Pillock! Right, let's move."

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**Sunnydale High, Library**

The Library cage was cleared out for the slumbering werewolf and it was firmly locked. Xander took the opportunity to do more scans of it with a medical Tricorder from one of the Medkits. The results were quite fascinating, at least to Data. The werewolf was indeed a hybridization of man and wolf; even down to the cellular level…some organs had definite human characteristics, especially the enlarged capacity lungs. The fatal allergy to silver was obvious judging from certain anomalous protein markers in the blood.

The Scoobies decided to call it a night and Xander volunteered to keep watch. He passed the time by going through the Library and further updating his Occult database.

In the morning, though, Giles brought grim news.

"Theresa Klusmeyer had been killed last night in an apparent animal attack."

"Oh boy," said Xander shaking his head sadly, "she and Buffy were friends."

"I tend to take official police reports with a grain of salt in this town, so before we lay the blame on the werewolf" said Giles pointing to the slumbering heavy form in the cage, "did you find any human blood residue on the werewolf?"

"Nothing obvious," said Xander in thought, "there was no blood in its mouth, although it would lick itself clean after a meal if it had time…that would mean I need to do a scan of the stomach contents." He approached the cage with his medical tricorder again and… "Nope, just animal proteins in there…"

"Ok," said Giles staring at his watch, "I think then we should investigate what killed Ms Klusmeyer after we inform this poor soul of his affliction…the moon should set in fifteen minutes."

Time slowly marched on and the Earth rotated…finally the sun rose on a new morning and the light began to stream into the library. Xander winced at the rather gruesome transformation, you could hear the bones shrinking and snapping back into a human shape, the hair retreated into bare skin which lightened, the snout retracted and after a few breathless moments…a naked human was lying there…a very familiar human.

The young man woke up and blinked at his change of surroundings, obviously confused. He sat up and realized he was naked, and looked around frantically for something to cover himself with. Unfortunately for him, the library cage had been pretty much cleared of everything that could be used in such a manner. He stood and using his hands as improvised shields for his modesty, stared at Xander and Giles, who were also rather befuddled at this turn of events.

It was of course, at this moment that fate decided to have some fun; Buffy and Willow skipped into the library.

"Oz!?" squeaked Willow, her face becoming remarkably similar in color to her red hair.

"Hi," said Oz awkwardly.

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Giles donated the use of some spare clothes he always kept around the library, they were too big for Oz, but clearly he'd rather look ridiculous is baggy clothes than walk around naked. In the ensuing explanation of Oz's werewolf status, Willow couldn't look at the musician without blushing. Oz got a thoughtful look on his face after the initial shock had worn off, and asked to use the phone.

"Aunt Maureen," said Oz into the phone, "hey, it's me. Um, what? Oh, it's…actually healing okay. That's pretty much the reason I called. Um, I wanted to ask you something. Is Jordy a werewolf? Uh-huh. And how long has that been going on? Uh-huh. What? No, no reason. Um…thanks. Yeah, love to Uncle Ken." He slammed down the phone and got a spacey look.

"I take it that was confirmation?" asked Giles gently.

"Yes, I was bitten by my cousin," said Oz, sitting down at one of the desks. "It happened at night, couldn't see it, I thought it was a big dog."

"Clearly it seems that was not the case," said Giles.

"What do I do now?" asked Oz with a frown, rubbing an agitated hand through his spiked red hair.

"The only real option I can think of is that you will simply have to secure yourself in the Library cage three nights a month from now on," explained the Watcher thoughtfully. "Someone should also stay with you at all times to make sure you don't break out. Xander could you please see about reinforcing the structure of the cage?"

"Yes, some replicated duratanium alloy should do nicely," replied Xander, "but I think we can do more for Oz."

"Oh?" said Giles in curiosity, Oz perked up. "Is there some futuristic method…"

"No, no, well, in a way," temporized Xander, "if he would agree to long hours of everyday mental toil, I can instruct him in some Vulcan meditation techniques."

"How would that help?" asked Buffy.

"The Vulcans are touch telepaths, and they have supreme control over their own bodies, using this I believe there is a…eighty three percent chance that Oz could…retain his human mind during a werewolf transformation. There is a further fifty percent chance, that he could become proficient enough to remain completely human, even during a full moon."

"Wow," said Willow looking impressed and excited.

"Yes, though I wish I could say it will definitely help you Oz, I can't be certain, humans that tried these techniques in the Trek Universe had mixed results…it either worked wonders, or didn't help at all…"

"I'll take anything I can get," said Oz with a nod of thanks.

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**Sunny Funeral Home**

Xander and Buffy walked towards the open displayed coffin at the far end of the memorial room. It was late at night and the seats facing the coffin were empty. The service for Theresa Klusmeyer had occurred yesterday.

The body of Theresa had a rather suspicious looking scarf wrapped around her neck. Buffy walked up and removed it. The distinctive puncture wound was there.

"Vampire," said Buffy angrily.

"So for sure we now know it wasn't Oz," said Xander. "But that doesn't answer who did this."

"No," said Buffy shaking her head, "I just can't catch a break…I'm dealing with a werewolf and then behind my back this…" she gestured to Theresa, "happens." She caught sight of the guest register. "She had a lot of friends."

"Buffy, you can't blame yourself for every death that happens in Sunnydale," said Xander sternly. "You can't be everywhere at once…you're only one person, that's why Giles and the rest of the Scoobies help. If it weren't for you a lot _more_ people would be dead. Willow would be Robbie the Robot's love slave, and I wouldn't even have a head. And…Theresa's a vampire."

Theresa sat up out of her coffin and growled at them both. The vampire nimbly hopped out of the coffin and Buffy charged at it. She grabbed Theresa and threw her down to the floor in a classic takedown throw. Xander, for his part, stood in a ready stance, to back Buffy up in case she needed it.

Theresa managed a kick from the floor before Buffy could pin her to the floor. The vampire, with full game face out swooped on Buffy, trying to pin the Slayer in turn, but Buffy rolled with the momentum and turned it around so that she was dominant. She made a quick grab for a wooden easel holding the flower arrangement and easily broke the leg.

Buffy was about to stake Theresa the vampire when…

"Angel sends his love," said Theresa with a malicious grin.

Buffy was caught off guard and hesitated for that precious moment. Theresa managed a kick to Buffy's arm that sent her makeshift stake flying. She grabbed Buffy by the shoulders and managed to wrestle her down onto her back.

"Ok, enough play time," said Xander, rushing forward, deflecting a punch from Theresa and in a swift movement broke the vampire's offending arm. The pain distracted the vampire enough for him to get close and wrap his arm reversed around Theresa's neck, with an upward jerk her neck was broken and a cloud of ash and dust erupted around them.

Brushing himself off, Xander helped Buffy to her feet.

"Angel," she murmured.

"Are you okay?"

"This isn't happening," she said in a voice full of emotion and engulfed him in a hug, "he's gonna keep coming after me."

"Do not allow him to get to you Buffy," said Xander, hugging her gently back, "this is Angelus' forte. Psychological warfare. He tries to turn his enemies, into their own worst enemies. In your case, he's trying to force the guilt of Theresa's death on your shoulders…and it's not your guilt…it's _his_. He's the one who bit and killed her. He's the one who chose her specifically."

"Then why don't I feel that way?"

"You're human."

She let go of the hug and stared up at him. And nodded with a rue smile. "That I am."

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	6. Chapter 6 T'Jen

**Chapter 6 - T'Jen**

He didn't need to sleep, not technically, but he could. And like Dawn he decided to stick to a schedule of regeneration, mental mostly, since his android body didn't need relaxation. The past night was one such occasion where he had 'fallen' asleep, numerous autonomous sensors kept an eye on passing time and would wake Xander exactly when he had specified.

On this occasion he had woken at six in the morning, to give himself enough time to do a survey of the DWX campus. Willow was making good progress on the Sickbay; it already had numerous functional bio-beds, medical replicator, numerous diagnostic and medical tools and was nicely upholstered, all that remained to be done was the surgical bay and holographic emitters for the EMH, not mention programming the EMH itself, which would be no small feat.

Data was no Dr Zimmerman, as an EMH was more than just a walking medical database made out of photons and forcefields. It would take both Dawn and him working together to program even a basic Mark One EMH, and even that was a fifty-fifty proposition.

The other option was to somehow find and convince a Doctor of the current era to come on board and keep the secret of the supernatural, not to mention the secret of DWX's origins. This was something that had weighed heavily on Xander recently. How many people were dying of diseases curable by 24th century standards, who didn't need to because the treatment was kept secret out of fear that word would reach the wrong ears?

He shook his head to dispel the melancholy and left the Sickbay and headed down the hall towards another room. A room which held either a marvel of technology to some, or a device of dubious function and morality to others.

The Transporter Room was like Sickbay, just a few stages away from completion. It needed a final ODN junction and the Heisenberg Compensators, then with a few test transports would be fully certified for people to go through. Its theoretical range would allow the Scoobies to beam themselves onto Mars if they were so inclined (with space suits of course). He wished he could've built the proper Transporter that had just started to appear on Federation starships; the ones which could beam someone across a few lightyears (thanks to captured Dominion tech during the war.) But those particular Transporters were highly complex pieces of technology and Xander didn't feel comfortable building them until he had more hands on experience with the basic kind.

There was a thought...build a faulty Dominion Transporter and dissipate Angelus' matter stream across a few lightyears to be swept away by the solar winds...

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**Sunnydale High Library**

News was grim though that morning during break. Angelus had decided to step up his 'let's freak the Scoobies out before we kill them' campaign; as Buffy could attest to.

"You're kidding," said Xander in astonishment.

"I wish I was," said Buffy, "Angel was in my bedroom last night."

"Are you sure?" said Giles with a worried expression on his face.

"Positive, when I woke up I found a hand drawn picture he'd left of me on my pillow," she crossed her arms uncomfortably.

"That must be some serious skill in stealth," said Xander shaking his head, "with your own enhanced senses...and not be aware of him..."

"Wait," objected Cordelia, who to Xander's discomfort was recently making every excuse to be around him or with the Scoobies, despite her own vehement insistence that they were of the 'uncool'. "I thought vampires couldn't come in unless you invited them."

"Yes, but, uh, once you've invited them in, thereafter they're always welcome," explained Giles with a wince.

"There's an invaluable lesson here girls," said Xander with a grin, trying to let some of his old self cheer Buffy up, "and it's about inviting strange men into your bedrooms."

"Oh my," said Cordelia in startled realization, "I invited him into my car once, which means he can come into my car whenever he wants."

"Well it seems as if you're doomed to give Angelus and his vamp pals a lift whenever they feel like it," said Xander wryly.

"Giles, there has to be some kind of spell to reverse the invitation, right?" asked Buffy a little desperately. "No shoes, no pulse, no service kind of thing?"

"Yeah," perked up Cordelia, "that works for a car too?"

"It has been done before," confirmed Giles with a nod, "though the specifics elude me. Xander?"

Xander opened his mouth to say something when they were interrupted. Jonathan Levinson was the all American poster child for geeks; he was short for his age, which made him a natural target for the bullies and the football team. He had dark, mid cut black hair and fairly exuded an aura of awkwardness. He was with a girl, surprisingly, given his well known lack of interpersonal skills, though it was clear she was merely there with him in a 'fellow student' capacity.

"Yes, may I help you?" asked Giles.

"We're supposed to get some books," said Jonathan, shuffling on his feet under the stares of everyone, "on Stalin."

"Uh, yes, yes," said Giles gesturing, "third row, Historical Biographies."

"Thanks," said Jonathan shortly and sped off into the stacks. Xander gestured for them to follow out of the library out of earshot of Jonathan and the girl. Walking in the hallways he resumed the conversation.

"Yes, I know the ritual for 'uninviting' a vampire," he explained, "rather useful when you accidentally invite a vamp into your home and both parties survive the experience. There are a few occasions of this in vamp hunter's and Watcher's Journals. I'll explain it in detail to you later...rather easy actually."

"What I don't get is if Angel was in Buffy's room and leaving stuff, why didn't he slit her throat or strangle her while she's sleeping or cut her heart out?" asked Cordelia. This prompted everyone to give her severe disapproving looks. "What? I'm trying to help."

"Uh, yes, well, it's um, classic battle strategy," said Giles grimly, "to throw one's opponent off their game. He's trying to provoke you, Buffy. To goad you into, uh, a mishap of some sort."

"Giles, Angel once told me that when he was obsessed with Drusilla, the first thing h-he did was to kill her family," said Buffy with deep concern.

"Your mum has been warned Buffy, and she has a Scooby survival kit," assured Xander. "She is as safe as anyone can be in this town." He got a pointed look from her. "Yes, that's not saying much. Since we're dealing with a Master Vamp here, but soon we can Transport anyone out of danger should they signal for it."

"What about in the meantime?" fretted Buffy. "Angel has an all access pass to my house, and I'm not always there when my mother is. Neither is Dawn. I can't protect them."

"If Angelus tries to get Dawn, he will have a big surprise," said Xander with glee. "You don't really have an appreciation of her physical abilities now that she is a part Borg. She could easily take a Vulcan in close quarters combat, and to give you an idea, a vamp and a Vulcan are on roughly equal terms."

"Yeah, but you know how much time she spends at DWX," retorted Buffy.

"Your mom could move into DWX," proposed Xander half-heartedly.

"She won't go for it," said Buffy with slumped shoulders. "She'd never let fear of something dictate her choices in life."

"Buffy, I-I understand your concern, but it's imperative that you keep a level head through all this," said Giles.

"That's easy for you to say. You don't have Angel lurking in your bedroom at night."

"I know how hard this is for you," said Giles intently, but got a sarcastic look from Buffy. "All right, I don't. But as the Slayer, you don't have the luxury of being a slave to your, your passions. You mustn't let Angel get to you. No matter how provocative his behaviour may become."

"So what you're basically saying is, 'just ignore him, and maybe he'll go away'?"

"Yes, precisely," affirmed Giles.

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To revoke the invitation of a vampire into a home was, as Xander stated, quite easy. It had to be, since you probably couldn't afford to spend days on preparation and invocation whilst the vampire in question had all the opportunity to attack you at will in your own home.

"All you have to do is recite the following Latin phrases, inserting Angel's name as indicated," said Xander, handing Buffy a printout he had done in computer class (Ms Calendar had helped by loaning a book which described a few elements that made the ritual even easier.) "Burn moss herbs in the centre of your home, then sprinkle holy water at all the thresholds, including the windows, the ritual is sealed by placing a cross or similar symbol in the room you want most protected."

"Thanks Xander," said Buffy gratefully with a hug. "This is all stuff I already have..." she commented staring at the sheet of paper.

"Yeah, well 'necessity is the mother of invention', or so they say," said Xander with a grin. "Gotta love those Watchers and hunters of yesteryear, they knew their stuff."

That evening though, as Xander was helping Dawn install the ODN junction they got a rather frantic call from Willow. Angelus had decided to take all her goldfish and string them together; putting them in an envelope for her to find on her pillow...this had been done while she was still in the house, without her realizing the vampire was even there.

It was decided that she would go to Buffy's house, now that it was safe again from Angelus; it would be too far to travel to the more fortified DWX.

"I can't believe it slipped my mind that Willow had invited Angel into her house when Ford was still around," groused Xander, berating himself. "I'm supposed to be an android..."

"Well," said Dawn, using a flux coupler on the exposed ODN junction jutting out of the wall, "you're not exactly a pure android like Data was Xan. You're more of a hybrid now. More human...means you've got the capacity to make some mistakes."

"I suppose," conceded Xander, focusing on adjusting an isolinear pathway. He was startled though when he felt arms snake over his chest from behind and a distinctly impressive female body pressing itself against his back. "Dawn..."

"Hmmm?" she murmured mischievously into his ear, her breath tickling the back of his neck and sending shivers up and down his body.

"Not that I'm complaining but did you have that...chat with your mother..."

"Mm hmmm," she confirmed throatily and placed a series of soft kisses on his neck which gravitated up and finally found his ear. The sensation was enough to nearly wipe all coherent thought from his mind. He rallied and with effort produced a question.

"And she said?"

Her hands had flitted under his loose shirt and were leaving burning fires of sensation in their wake as her fingers caressed his torso.

"That it's ok, except no getting pregnant," she replied. The sensuous words and their associations sent tremors up and down his spine. Dawn's arms twisted and twirled him around so that they were face to face, and once again that beautiful body of hers seemed to melt against his. "Though she also said that if you break my heart, that she will do a Terminator on you."

"What? Crush me in a pneumatic vice or dip me in liquid metal?" Her face morphed into a sexy grin.

"Both," she answered and promptly dived forward for searing kiss.

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The next day in late afternoon found Xander and Ms Calendar walking in the commercial district of Sunnydale. Their destination was a place that she stated would be helpful in their current battle against the Scourge of Europe. She didn't go into specifics but stated that she would welcome his company and the 'protection' he provided. Though the sun was still up, it didn't mean that they were safe from Angelus.

It turned out to be a tarot shop, Sunnydale style. On a display table there was skull in a covered glass bowl, a small gong hung between two horns, a pig fetus in formaldehyde, and these were the least freaky items on display. The normally dressed shopkeeper with a normal pricing gun in his hand seemed way out of place.

The shopkeeper looked up at their approach and addressed them in of all things a Romany accent.

"Velcome, how mey I serve you today?" said the man.

"Uh..." said Jenny uncertainly, she seemed startled at the accent.

"Luv potion? Pervhaps a voodoo doll for zat unfaithful..." continued the shopkeeper, but Jenny firmly cut across his seemingly practiced speech.

"I need an Orb of Thesulah," she said. Xander gave a start of surprise at that item. And her wanting it made a whole of sense. The Orb was something that could contain and hold spiritual essences. It was and essential part of the Curse of the Soul that was used on Angelus to make him into Angel.

"Oh, you're both in the trade," said the shopkeer, suddenly dropping the accent. "Sorry about the spiel, but around Valentine's Day, I get a lot of tourists shopping for love potions and mystical revenge of past lovers." He put down the price gun and walked behind the counter. "Sad fact is, Ouija boards and rabbits' feet, that's what pays the rent around here. So how did you hear about us?" He went into a back room.

"My Uncle Enyos told me about you," said Jenny, her face wincing.

"So you're Janna then," said the shopkeeper, coming back out of the room with a wooden box. "Sorry to hear about your Uncle."

"Thank you," nodded Jenny, as the shopkeeper put the box down.

"Well, there you go, one Thesulan Orb. Spirit vault for the rituals of the undead." Jenny reached into her purse and handed over a Credit card. "I don't get many calls for these lately. Sold a couple as new age paperweights last year." He swiped the card in a reader and handed it back. "Yeah, I just love those new-agers. They helped to send my youngest to college. By the way, you do know that the transliteration annals for the ritual of the undead were lost. Without the annals, the surviving text is gibberish."

"There's been a breakthrough recently with regards to that," said Jenny, winking at Xander. She was of course referring to the fact that Xander's long efforts with the Curse had borne fruit, and he had finally produced an effective translation matrix for ancient Romani.

"Really?" said the shopkeeper with wide eyes. "That is news indeed Janna, the clans might even consider welcoming you back if you brought such a thing with you."

"Perhaps," said Jenny, "but there are more important issues out there, than simply my own status within the clans."

"Indeed," said the shopkeeper. "So what are you planning to do with it?"

"We're going to conjure a present for a friend of ours," said Jenny with a smile, as she opened the lid of the box and stared at the earthy looking orb, which began to glow under her stare.

Xander couldn't believe it; she was actually considering casting the Curse herself.

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**Sunnydale High School...early evening...**

A single computer in the school's expansive computer lab was on. Jenny sat behind it and laboured with a translated copy of the Curse. It was one thing to simply recast the Curse on Angelus as before, it was totally another to attempt to modify the curse so that it didn't fail on such a vague whim as a single moment of happiness. The thought and intent behind it had to be perfectly balanced with the arcane forces and various other mystical elements or the whole thing would probably cause a nice smoking crater to appear and kill the people trying to cast it.

She had been slaving away at it for the better part of the afternoon, and now it was quite late. She stared at the Curse displayed on the screen in front of her and her mind drifted entirely of its own accord to Rupert. The man had a quiet dignity about him. He was also a Watcher who put his humanity in front of the job...something that was entirely unprecedented in her experience with the operatives that the Council usually produces. He cared about his Slayer as more than a mere tool, and by extension he did the same for Buffy's friends. He was damn near a father figure to all the Scoobies.

His past and darker side that was recently revealed as Ripper, in a way, only served to make her more attracted to him...as it showed he was a man who knew when to take the gloves off. And that he learned well from his own mistakes.

Her mind came back to itself and the text of the Curse in front of her. She had written a program with some help from her Internet Technomage group that would apply all the various arcane variables and factors to the Curse and see if it would work as desired. This would be her fifteenth attempt.

She initiated the program and the percentage complete bar crawled across the screen.

"Come on, come on..." she encouraged the damn thing.

Previously she had only managed seventy percent...but now...it had passed it and finally the bar disappeared and showed that the Curse was theoretically possibly in its new form.

"Yes!" she enthused. "It's gonna work." She popped out the yellow disk from disk drive of the computer and placed it on top her working pile of books on the desk next to her. While the printer started to produce a hard copy of the modified Curse. She wheeled her chair over to printer to look it over for any flaws, in case the printer should decide to jam...as it was won't to doing occasionally.

Her eyes caught sight of something in her peripheral vision and her heart seemed to jump up her throat in fright.

Angelus was sitting luxuriantly in a desk at the back of the class.

She jumped out of her seat and fingered the cross pendant on her necklace.

"Angelus..." said Jenny nervously, struggling to master her fear and her own voice, "how did you get in here?"

"I was invited. The sign in front of the school... 'Formatia trans sicere educatorum'," smirked the vampire.

"Enter all ye who seek knowledge," she translated, trying to slowly edge towards the door.

"What can I say?" said Angelus rhetorically, standing casually which did nothing to belie the menace in his presence. "I'm a knowledge seeker."

"Well I have good news for you," said Jenny feeling her fear shoot to new heights as Angelus slowly walked to the front of the classroom and towards her.

"I heard. You went shopping at the local boogedy-boogedy store," smirked the vampire, approaching the desk, where the box containing the Orb was. He opened it and picked up the Thesulan Orb. "If memory serves, this is supposed to summon a person's soul... from the ether... store it until it can be transferred." It began to glow as he looked at it. "You know what I hate most about these things?" He abruptly flung it into the blackboard where it shattered into a lot of pieces and dust. "They're so damn fragile. Must be that shoddy Gypsy craftsmanship, huh?"

Jenny had finally reached the wall and started to inch towards the door. Meanwhile, Angelus regarded the PC she had just been working on and turned the monitor so he could see it. "I never cease to be amazed how much the world has changed in just two and a half centuries."

She finally reached the door...but it was locked. That only left one other option...for the moment. Her hands folded together, and using her left as a shield for her right, she reached slowly into the long sleeve of her left arm.

"It's a miracle to me. You, you put the secrets to restoring my soul in here..." said the vampire in mock amazement, and with a powerful thrust, the computer and screen was hurled to the floor where it broke and the monitor shattered and began to spark and the interior started to burn with a small flame. He next turned his attention to the printer and tore out the paper and regarded it. "'The Ritual of Restoration.' Wow. This, this brings back memories." And abruptly began tearing it up.

"You don't want to do this, Angelus," said Jenny, shaking her head.

"Oh yeah? And why not?"

"Because I rather think you would wish continued existence as Angel than being vaporized," she said, managing to control her fear somewhat and get her wits about her.

"Oooo, so you have a Phaser now too, Trek boy has been busy it seems," said Angelus and moved the scraps of torn paper over the small fire from the monitor which instantly caught flame. "I really should do something about him. But in all in good time. Well, so you have one those toys, do you really think you'll be able to hit me with it?"

"Probably not," admitted Jenny. And abruptly a thick yellow beam of energy shot from her. She had pulled out her Type 1 from her sleeve, but did not shoot towards Angelus, who would most assuredly dodge the beam with his preternatural Master Vampire speed, but towards the computer monitor he was standing over.

The explosion was big enough to send glass and plastic shrapnel from the monitor hurtling into Angelus at extremely high speeds that not even he could dodge. She ignored the vampire's screams of pain but she herself was not left unscathed by the shrapnel either; a piece had glanced her cheek and was streaming blood. Another blast blew the door off its hinges and she ran.

A quick look down the hallway showed that the vampire had recovered quickly and was following her, but clearly not at full speed. Seemed he wanted to have a bit of fun chasing her first. Anger licked her insides and she went faster, literally running for her life.

She hurtled through the door to the lounge area and directed another phaser beam to the door that led outside.

Bursting into the cool night air she took off at a fast sprint. She didn't even bother heading toward her car, as Angelus was sure to catch up with her there. The vampire behind her was keeping up with a barely fast walk. It galled that her best efforts at running were merely a jog for Angelus. She directed another phaser blast towards him whilst running to keep him busy dodging and closing the distance.

But she was beginning to tire. And Angelus was gaining.

"Come now, Jenny!" mocked Angelus, "keep going, I'm still working up my appetite. Don't quit now...run, Jenny! Run! Run!" called the vampire in mock Southern accent.

In response she twisted and flung three blasts from her phaser. One towards him, forcing him to dodge and another to his right and left, it was a good tactic...had he remained standing. Angelus rolled forward under the beams. "Clever!" he mock praised. But with a final burst of speed he grabbed Jenny by the neck and both came to screeching halt.

"Sorry, Jenny, this is where you get off," said the vampire, almost looking reticent about it.

She closed her eyes, resigned to her fate. There was a soft whining twinkling sound that abruptly filled her ears...the world dissolved in a wash of blue and white and she knew no more...

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**DWX...half a minute earlier...**

"We don't have time!" shouted Xander to Dawn; who was standing at the Transporter control station.

"But without Heisenberg Compen..." she objected with wide eyes.

"It's either this or she dies," he said and pulled out an isolinear panel in the wall. He gestured to the sounds of phaser fire coming from their combadges. "She doesn't have the reflexes to hit him."

"I hope you have a plan," said Dawn grimly, acquiescing.

"A somewhat improvised one..." he allowed, connecting an interface cable from the dataport in his skull to the circuits.

"_Sorry, Jenny, this is where you get off. _"

"Energize!"

Dawn hurriedly glanced her hands over the gliding touchpanel, which lit up as her finger moved up on it. On the circular transporter pad, a blue twinkle of lights cascaded with speed from the ceiling to the floor. An indefinable humanoid shape appeared, seeming to consist of twinkling sparkles of light. There was abruptly a beep of warning from the computer.

"I have no rematerialization data input from the Compensators, I can't reconstitute her pattern!" said Dawn intently.

"I know, I know!" said Xander, closing his eyes, a look of intense concentration coming over him. "Just keep her stable for as long as you can! Divert all the power you can to the pattern buffer!"

"I can give you...three minutes before her pattern starts to degrade," announced Dawn after a moment of her hands dancing over the LCARS transporter console, diverting the necessary power.

"I'll take it."

The constant whining of the Transporter and beeps from the control panel as Dawn regulated the power flow punctuated the battle against time that was being fought. Dawn had no idea what her...boyfriend (she supposed she could call him that now) had planned to successfully rematerialize Ms Calendar. Not even a Borg Transporter could work without a Heisenberg Compensator...though the Borg didn't call the device that.

"Thirty seconds, Xan," warned Dawn as a warning beep sounded. Xander's face was looking more and more strained by the second, as if he was doing the world's most complex jigsaw...which wasn't a bad way to look at the problem. As he was essentially reassembling Ms Calendar using his own internal computing capacity...but despite that...he didn't have a quantum scan that the Heisenburg Compensator would've ordinarily done before Transport...then...

"Ten seconds!" said Dawn anxiously.

"Wait for it...almost got it..." said Xander, his fists straining and teeth gritting with the effort to finish.

"Five...four...three..."

"Rematerialize her!"

Dawn slid her fingers down on the remat controls and the whine of the Transporter died and the blue twinkles resolved themselves fully back into a state of matter. She was just about to shout for joy in success when she caught sight of Ms Calendar standing on the Transporter pad. The computer teacher immediately slumped to the ground once the Annular Confinement Beam powered down.

Xander unplugged himself from the ODN and rushed over to the slumped teacher.

"Dawn get the medkit, hurry! We need to sedate her." However, Dawn was too astonished to move. She simply stared. "Dawn! Snap out of it!" Startled, she nodded, steeling herself and rushed to the wall where the medkit was mounted. Xander abruptly appropriated the kit from her hands and pulled out a hypospray and immediately applied it to the neck of Ms Calendar. A slight hissing was heard and immediately the recumbent figure's breathing slowed and muscles relaxed.

"Run ahead, get a Biobed in Sickbay ready...better call for Willow as well, I'll carry Ms Calendar."

Xander swiftly picked up the sedated woman.

"What are we gonna tell Giles?"

"I don't know...I don't know..."

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Tires were heard screeching as an Aston Martin DB7 turned the corner and sped down the street towards DWX at great speed. Giles pulled to a stop outside of the DWX gates and honked impatiently on his horn. _Stupid gates_, he thought, _open faster_. The electric motor slowly wheeled the heavy gate to one side. He barely gave it time to open fully before revving the Aston's engine and moving forward. He ended up clipping his side mirror and slightly bending it.

He parked the Aston as close to the front doors of the main office building and switched it off. He simply opened the door and rushed out...not even bothering securing the car.

"Xander! Willow! Dawn..." he shouted as he entered the empty main foyer. The elevator dinged and Xander walked out. Giles sped over to the young android and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Xander! What's happening? Dawn told me Angelus!...he tried!..."

"Easy! Relax Giles...Jenny is...alive, fine."

Giles didn't miss Xander's hesitation and his tone...yes, Jenny was alive, but something was wrong.

"I think we should go to my office to discuss what's happened, then you can see her," said Xander almost sadly, his shoulders slumping somewhat.

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Once they were comfortable in his office Xander poured a stiff drink of whiskey from the fridge that Giles kept in it and presented it to the Watcher.

"Drink that as we speak, you'll need it," assured Xander, and fell into a thoughtful silence.

"Xander...I appreciate the thought...but the only thing that will make me feel better is seeing Jenny..."

"Seeing her now will do the opposite," said Xander confidently. "You don't yet understand what's happened to her...what I had to do to save her...if it even is her anymore..."

"What?" said Giles in confusion.

"A big part of this explanation is quantum mechanical principles that you have no basis to understand...so bear with me..." said Xander raising his hands. "Ok, this afternoon Jenny was working in the school lab on refining the Curse to use on Angelus. She obviously got lost in her work and wasn't watching the time; otherwise she would've headed home before sundown. Anyway, Angelus cornered her in the lab...destroyed the computer she was working on...luckily she managed to activate her comlink to me with her crucifix pendant. When I heard her and Angelus speaking I knew time was short. So I grabbed Dawn and we headed to the Transporter."

"I thought you said it wasn't finished," said Giles with wide eyes.

"It isn't finished," affirmed Xander. "It's missing a key component that we haven't installed yet. This is where the science stuff comes in...The device is responsible for taking a scan of you on a quantum level and compensating for the observer effect on molecules..." He saw that Giles blinked in incomprehension and he changed gears in his explanation. "It basically tells the computer which is right way to assemble you after your energy pattern arrives wherever you want it to go."

"Oh, yes, I see...and with it missing?"

"I had to improvise in a hurry," said Xander heavily. "I substituted myself to act as the missing component by interfacing with the Transporter directly."

"Well then what's the problem? If Jenny is alive and well..."

"Giles, Angelus was a moment away from killing Jenny...we were forced to initiate Transport before I could be properly interfaced...meaning that I couldn't take a proper quantum scan of her pattern before she was dematerialized..."

"You're descending into the realms of technobabble..."

"I didn't have the information to make her into what she was before the Transport!" snapped Xander, frustrated at the tech-stunted Watcher. "I had three minutes to do something with her pure energy before it dissipated beyond recovery."

Giles looked as if Xander had just slammed him over the head with a bat.

"What did you do?" asked Giles faintly.

"I had to get the information to rematerialize her from the only source I had available to me, my internal database, and the only rematerialization info I have are from people in the Trek Universe."

"You have to be kidding me?" said the older man, beginning to see where this was going.

"I only had a few nanoseconds to consider which person to use as a template, about the only consideration I could put into it was to choose a person from an era not represented in any of the current shows."

"Who...then d-d-did you ch-choose?" said Giles with wide eyes.

"The first female person I could find on the database, from the pre-Federation era...she was a Vulcan and her name was T'Pol."

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Giles had seen the deaths of many colleagues, friends and acquaintances - all lost to the darkness. Occasionally he had been required to confirm the identity of the body, and had to go to the morgue to formally do so. Why oh why did this feel like doing the same? Jenny wasn't dead. Yet, as he walked to the nearly completed Sickbay he couldn't but help feel that same numb feeling when his emotions reached that dark place called grief, loss, and all its associated connotations.

The door swished open automatically as he approached and entered the Sickbay. His eyes were immediately drawn to the figure laid out on one of the eight evenly spaced Biobeds. He approached the bed in a near daze; it was as if he was not the one walking forward and standing next to her, there was also an unearthly silence that seemed to settle itself in his ears.

If this was Jenny, she was clearly not as she had been. Her hair was now short and black, with prominent pointed ears jutting upwards on either side of her head. The face was no longer Jenny's; it had more angular features with higher cheekbones. Her complexion now had an olive tone it and she was also slightly taller than he remembered her being. She was wearing a light blue skintight jumpsuit that had red striping framing her shoulders and an insignia patch on her arm. Bending down slightly he examined it in more detail. A strange form of ship was depicted on it...none that he remembered from any shows...

_Enterprise NX-01_

"I'm sorry Giles," said Xander despondently, now standing on the other side of the bed and looking down. "It was all I could do in the time available. Her essence is there. The rest of her physical body all belongs to Commander T'Pol of Vulcan."

"What about memories, thoughts, the personality of Jenny?" asked Giles, feeling the first tongues of hot anger beginning to lick at his heart.

"As I said the rest of Commander T'Pol's physical body...including the brain...which was the last available transporter record I had of her in my database. Meaning when I do revive her, she will have access to the memories of T'Pol, she will be T'Pol...however, the essence or soul will be that of Jenny at least. To say anything more will be faring into the realms of philosophy. We'll just have to wait and see what happens."

"Just who is this T'Pol, Xander?"

The young hybrid was about to answer when the doors hissed open and a teary eyed Willow came in carrying a tray with newly replicated medical instruments destined for the Surgical bay in the adjoining room.

"Giles..." she said in a rather trembling voice and hugged the older man, "I-I-I'm sorry..."

"Thank you," said the man, his jaw flexing as he was starting to feel more and more anger that was slowly replacing the grief. "You were saying?"

"Yes," said Xander softly. "T'Pol was the first Vulcan to serve for any significant time on a human starship. Earth had broken the Warp 5 barrier in 2148 and the first ship to be fitted with such an engine was the _Enterprise NX-01_, launched in 2151. With such an engine hundreds of inhabited worlds and true space exploration was now open for Earth to pursue. T'Pol was the ship's chaperone, in a way, keeping the rather bright eyed and naive Earthlings from steeping on too many toes."

"Wait...I thought Pike's _Constitution_ class _Enterprise_ was the first to bear the name," said Willow with a frown.

"No, it wasn't, it's the other way around, Pike's ship was named in honour of the original pre-Federation _Enterprise_ launched by the United Earth Space and Probe Agency," explained Xander. "Since it was that _Enterprise_ and her Captain, Jonathan Archer that was a catalyst for the events which gave birth to the Federation, T'Pol was eventually his second in command."

"So she also contributed to it," said Willow, looking rather fascinated at this new yet un-shown history of the other Universe.

"Yes, "agreed Xander, "she pulled _Enterprise_ out of many sticky situations. But her true contributions were during the original Earth/Romulan War, where she played an integral part in helping Fleet Captain Archer fight the last Romulan expansion fleet to a standstill at the Battle of Cheron. Her last memories should be of beaming down to Earth for the signing of the Federation Charter, just a few months after the War ended."

"And now she's here," said Willow with a frown.

"When will you wake her?" asked Giles.

"Tomorrow morning...I could wake her now, it's just I'm having the computer run some scans of her to make sure there was no complications from the Transport...and its best she remain still for them."

"Very well," said the Watcher and strode out of the Sickbay, looking like a man with a purpose, the doors swished closed behind him.

"I better contact Buffy," said Xander after a while, staring significantly at Willow. "He's got vengeance written all over his forehead."

"Good idea."

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**Spike's Factory Lair**

"Are you insane?" shouted Spike, his face twisted into a vision of fury. Any target of William the Bloody's ire would normally be a smudge on the horizon by now, or would normally be very dead. However, since his target was his Grandsire and a Master Vampire that was a degree stronger than himself, he settled for merely berating. "We're supposed to kill the bitch, not leave gag gifts in the friends' beds. Not to mention trying to kill the Watcher's bird, and failing."

Drusilla who was cuddling an adorable looking puppy that she had taken as a pet after Spike refused it as a blood meal to cheer him up pouted in her typical crazy and whacky manner, "But, Spike, the bad teacher was going to restore Angel's soul."

"What if she did?" scoffed Spike, sneering at Angelus. "If you ask me, I find myself preferring the old Buffy-whipped Angelus. This new, improved one is not playing with a full sack." Angelus sent him a pointed look in return. "I love a good slaughter as much as the next bloke," temporized the younger vampire, "but his little pranks will only leave us with one incredibly brassed-off Slayer!"

"Don't worry," said Angelus with narrowed eyes, "I've got everything under control..."

"Yeah right," said Spike sarcastically, "that Harris bloke is building more and more Trek gadgets...he beamed that bird right out from under your nose. He has weapons that can incinerate us in a heartbeat..."

"I will say it again...I'll deal with it, I've found their little company...no doubt its where he's building it all...we gather our numbers and..."

The conversation was rather rudely interrupted at that point when a Molotov Cocktail landed on the desk they were standing around. It shattered and flames erupted in a blast and began to run off onto the floor as the flammable liquid spread.

The three vampires hurriedly back away from the flames out of reach. Angelus cut across one side of the flames to avoid being trapped against the nearby wall, when a lancing orange energy beam hit him in the shoulder. It picked him up off the floor and sent the vampire tumbling and cursing with the pain of it. The beam had not been set to vaporize apparently, merely at a setting that would kill a normal person...leaving a great gaping hole in Angelus that left his arm with no feeling and hanging uselessly at his side.

The vampire stood with great effort to confront his attacker, who was approaching him, toting a baseball bat, numerous stakes in a belt, and putting away the phaser that he had just been shot with.

Giles lifted the bat and put it in the nearby flames, which instantly spread to the weapon itself. And the Watcher without pausing a moment, swung with all his strength and hit Angelus in the face. The master vampire staggered from the blow.

"Whatever happened to wooden stakes?" said Angelus hazily.

Giles' expression was wooden and fierce, promising a further world of pain, and the bat swung up and down, time after time, crashing into Angelus, scorching his skin to partial ashes with each strike, leaving raw and red patches on the vampire's body.

Drusilla moved to intervene at this point but was held back by a calculating Spike, "Uh-uh. No fair going into the ring unless he tags you first." William the Bloody was actually hoping the Watcher managed to dust Angelus; it would then be pittance to kill the man afterwards, have his Drusilla back all to himself and regain status as head of the minion pack...then leave Sunnydale, as it was getting way too dangerous with that Harris android on the loose.

Angelus tried to get back up, but Giles was ready for it and swung twice hard into his face, making the vampire fall again. He continued to beat on him, making Angelus collapse all the way to the floor.

This was where Giles made his first mistake. He paused for a moment to get his breath back and swung an overhead blow that gave Angelus ample time to catch the bat near the handle where it wasn't burning. Both man and vampire struggled for possession of it and inevitably Angelus got the upper hand and surged to his feet, grabbing Giles by the throat. Angelus threw the bat away and smirked at the Watcher.

"All right. You've had your fun," said Angelus with a wince, "But you know what it's time for now?"

Any answer Giles might have given was interrupted when a powerful kick smashed into Angelus' back. The momentum flung the Watcher from the vampire's grip and the Master Vampire whirled to confront his new attacker.

"My fun," quipped Buffy. She kicked him in the face and then shoved him onto the floor. Spike grabbed Drusilla and swiftly dragged her from the factory, seeing that Angelus' odds had just worsened. Buffy kicked Angelus in the face again as he tried to get up, and then lunged at him.

He grabbed her, flipped her over and tried to get away up the stairs.

Buffy got back up to her feet fast with Giles' dropped baseball bat in hand and pushed it between the stair railings to trip the Master Vampire. Angelus fell ungracefully and she promptly grabbed one of his legs to try and pull him back down. He countered with a kick that knocked her grip loose and sent her back onto the floor, allowing him time to scramble up the stairs.

Buffy got up quickly. She saw a stack of crates, ran up them to the catwalk above, and cut Angelus' escape off. He took a swing at her, but she saw it coming and ducked, kicking him in the back of the knee and making him collapse onto the railing. She grabbed a nearby loop of rope, threw it around his neck and yanked him back and forth between the railings several times, she then kicked him in the chest, making him stagger back and fall onto his butt.

He got up fast, but she grabbed onto a pipe above her head and swung with both feet into his chest in a massive kick that made the vampire fly back into a barrel and some ducting.

She waited on the catwalk for him to come at her again, ready to fight in a modified horse stance. Angelus charged at her, and with a deft deflection and movement she diverted him past her and onto the catwalk grating, where he landed painfully with his head against one of the vertical railing bars. She kicked him in the face, not letting up on the pressure and followed up with several punches and another kick.

Amazingly, Angelus, despite being beat up, scorched, bruised, bloodied and shot near fatally with an energy weapon started to laugh. She grabbed him in disgust by the coat and banged his head into the railing a couple of times.

"Are you gonna let your old man just burn?" smirked Angelus with a split lip staining his teeth red.

Buffy turned to look down and saw that the flames from the Molotov had begun to spread and was encroaching ever nearer to a helpless Giles who was barely keeping consciousness after Angelus had squeezed his throat. Angelus took advantage of the distraction and grabbed her legs, lifted her and threw her over the railing. She managed to control her fall, landing on her feet near the fallen Giles.

She snapped him out of his daze and assisted him to his feet, and swiftly guided him out of the burning building.

By now both were hacking and coughing from smoke inhalation as they emerged into the cool early morning air. Giles however was far from rational at this point and shoved Buffy away from him.

"Why did you come here?!" he snarled. "This wasn't your fight."

Buffy did not take this lying down and swiftly punched him in a bid to make some sense return to his head. Her Watcher twisted and fell to the pavement hard.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" shouted Buffy angrily, glaring down at her mentor. But the anger departed as swiftly as mist from the sun and was replaced with deep sorrow and she began to cry. She crouched down next to him and enveloped him in a hug. Giles by now also sported tears and sitting up, hugged her back.

"You can't leave me. I can't do this alone!"

"You're never alone."

Buffy turned to see Xander and Dawn grimly standing a few feet away, UMPs glinting dangerously in the firelight coming from the factory.

"We will always be here."

She nodded and helped her mentor stand and said, "I can't hold on to the past anymore. Angel is gone. There's nobody now who can bring him back. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I couldn't kill him for you... for her...for you all...when I had the chance. I wasn't ready. But I think I finally am."

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**DWX Innovations, Sickbay**

T'Pol felt herself stir into the beginnings of consciousness. Which was strange since she couldn't remember a reason for her losing it in the first place, she had stepped into the Transporter alcove on _Enterprise_ and felt the strange sweeping out of body sensation of the device translocating her to Starfleet Headquarters. Only, instead of seeing the familiar building she felt she was now lying down on a bed, and her eyelids felt sluggish and she struggled to open them.

"She's coming around," she heard a voice breaking through the fog. Her mind analyzed the voice as belonging to a human male, slightly young and he was standing a few feet away from her.

T'Pol tried to move but found that a similar lethargy was settled over her body like a smothering blanket. "Commander T'Pol, can you hear me?" asked the same voice.

With supreme effort she opened her eyelids and looked up into a white ceiling. A hand carrying a thin device, presumably a scanner entered her visual field and moved up and down over her form. It swiftly retreated.

"Damn, I wish we had the EMH already. I used the wrong dosage..." said the young voice in frustration. She had no idea what an EMH was but logically it had something to do with administering medical treatment, and it also said that the young voice had little experience in medical matters. She felt a small cool sensation on her neck and there was a hiss.

The smothering blanket began to lift and she turned her head left and right to examine her surroundings. It was clearly a Sickbay, and an advanced one at that, she hardly recognized the devices around her. Then again, she was used to a Sickbay that always had a menagerie of sounds that came from the creatures that Dr Phlox harvested his medicines from.

The Sickbay was empty except for the human who she had heard speaking, a young man standing at one point eight nine meters according to Earth measurement, and another similarly youthful woman with long red hair and was wearing strangely ancient clothing...things she had seen in Earth's historical archives during her time in the Vulcan Compound before being ordered to take her position on _Enterprise_. The young man was dressed in a more rugged manner, wearing a long black coat...all in all, not unlike Section 31 operatives she had occasionally worked with during the Romulan war.

"Is that better?" asked the young man.

"Yes," she croaked, her mouth was extremely dry, the result of her sedation. The bed beneath her slowly bent itself more upright, bringing her into a more comfortable position. A glass of water was held to her lips and tipped up allowing her to easily gulp the liquid down. "What has occurred?"

"All will be explained, Commander," said the young man soothingly. "I just need to take few last minute scans of you, since we don't have a Doctor yet. A medical database does not a healer make, unfortunately."

He moved the slim medical scanning device forward again, but she grabbed the arm holding it.

"Tell me," she said, letting a brief glare come out of her eyes. Normally, displaying such an emotion to a human would make them stare strangely at her, as if they couldn't believe that a Vulcan could do so. But this one merely smirked and laughed briefly at the sight. She was also 'intrigued' that he wasn't wincing in pain at her grip on his arm.

"Very well," he easily broke the grip with a strength that definitely showed her that the young man was more than what he seemed. Was it possible that he was an Augment? She studied him more carefully as he handed the device back to the young woman; dark brown to black hair, a face that was jovial and a similar bearing to his posture, his eyes also showed friendliness. He moved with a strange walk that was almost mechanical.

The young woman on the other hand seemed...sad, subdued, her eyes crinkling whenever she looked at her; she was suppressing tears. If they were Augments they were hiding it very well.

"Before we get into that, I want to introduce myself...I am Alexander Harris, I prefer to be known by the name Xander. This is Willow Rosenberg. And I have to say it's a pleasure to meet you, Commander."

"Indeed," said T'Pol. "I will forego my own introductions since it seems you know of me. But as Captain Archer would say, 'Get on with it.'"

"The easiest way to do this would be to ask you a question," said Xander, "do you know what your own Katra feels like?"

"The fact that you know the true name of the Vulcan soul should mean you know the answer to that already," said T'Pol evenly.

"All the answers you seek Commander, are there, in your own Katra...commune with your soul...it is the only way that you will accept the truth. Evidence will of course be provided of your new circumstances as well, once you awaken. I suspect you could do with a Vulcan Healing Trance in any case..."

"How is this Logic? Seeking answers from my Katra, instead of seeking them through fact?"

"Because Commander, fact, in this Universe, is something that is not logical. I realize you might not be assured of your own safety at the moment, but assurance is something you will also find within your meditations...we will leave you now, signal us when you are finished. There is a com system embedded in the monitor above your bed."

With that the two young humans walked out of the Sickbay. The door hissed closed behind them.

T'Pol stared at that door for a long time. It was a 'strange' situation she found herself in. She briefly considered getting out of the bed and trying to leave, but her muscles and body were still not really cooperating with her...so she turned inward, beginning the meditation ritual as she was...if only to find some answers about her physical condition.

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Xander, Dawn and Willow had decided since it was a weekend to fully direct their efforts to finishing the Transporter whilst T'Pol was in meditation. He had set the computer to warn him when her vital signs returned to normal. Giles was also hovering about the building, or it would be more accurate to say he was pacing back and forth in the corridor near Sickbay.

Finally after six hours of work the new Heisenberg Compensator was installed and integrated. For an hour afterwards they Transported various items ranging in complexity from single cell plantlife to mice and food, and finally with a test transport of himself, Xander was beamed on top of Mount Everest and back, carrying a handful of snow in his palm.

Not a few minutes after, Dawn transported herself within sight of the Pyramids, a place she's always wanted to see. Willow followed by going to an island of Hawaii after carefully looking for an isolated spot to appear.

And with that, they had a fully functioning and certified Transporter.

"_T'Pol to...Xander_."

"Yes, Commander?" asked Xander rather anxiously.

"_I'm ready, and... I understand everything, please report to Sickbay_."

"Understood."

"Wow," said Dawn, looking impressed, "good plan, Xan."

The three of them gathered Giles and entered Sickbay, to find that T'Pol was standing, looking much more vital and energetic...waiting for them.

"Hello Giles," she said at the sight of him, "it is...agreeable to see you again."

"Jenny?"

"I...am her," said the Vulcan woman, looking uncomfortable, "yet I am also T'Pol. During the meditation T'Pol was gifted all the experiences and memories of Jenny...in honour of that, the two facets of personality decided on a new name for 'me'." She held up her hand in the traditional Vulcan greeting. "I am T'Jen. And it is a...pleasure to see and meet you all."

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_A/N: This chapter is done in the fine tradition of the Star Trek Transporter accident stories leaving us with all a manner of weird situations. I've always wanted to write something like this. It's a nice way for me to get T'Pol in the story...which I've been giving careful thought into how it would be done. I also hated the fact that Jenny died...here she survives as T'Jen...also don't expect that she and Giles will manage to rekindle their relationship...for a long time at least. _


	7. Chapter 7 MD

**Chapter 7 – MD**

He blinked his eyes as he felt a return to consciousness. For a few moments he simply stared at the brightly lit ceiling above him and considered the events that led to this point in his life. If a person had watched a highlight reel of it they would either have loved it, be amazed, wish for it for themselves, or never wish it upon their worst enemy.

He supposed it was a matter of perspective, as was all things.

It was easier to begin with the simple things.

His name was Douglas.

And the first thing that people commented on when they were introduced to him was the fact that he was a prodigy. He was the youngest ever certified, licensed medical doctor, obtaining his qualification at the age of fourteen. His next four years had been the most hectic he could remember, balancing the demands of a girlfriend, his friends, parties, a medical residency program that challenged even the adults who entered it, let alone a fourteen year old 'genius'.

In the end, it had become simply too much.

He left the instant he legally could. Bound for Europe in a bid to find himself outside the life of a genius, he had traveled the continent; looking for a real identity to build as a foundation he could show to anyone…that showed he was not just a genius, a superbrain, and so forth.

For two years he did what he termed city-jumping, he would go to any city on his path, find a place to stay, get any job he could (that was not a Doctor or involve medicine) that didn't ask too many questions.

Finally, though he returned with precious little to show that he had accomplished anything, bar a sense that he was denying his own calling. Who was he to deny his own gift that he had been granted with? How many people had died because he was not saving them?

He accepted a position at the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services or as it was more colloquially known, Shock Trauma Center. And he discovered to his delight that here he flourished, here he could apply his genius in the split second decisions required to deliver a person from death's clutches. Of course there were occasions where nothing could be done to save the person on the emergency bed below him, no amount of creative thinking and action simply would make a difference.

He'd been warned by his colleagues in Shock Trauma that he couldn't expect to last long in Emergency medicine – that any success he met with would only engender the expectation of greater success and when inevitably that did not materialize he would be left with all his youthful energy and ideals for fighting the good fight and saving lives completely shattered.

And like a fool, he had not believed them. Once again that old snake of arrogance had slithered its way into his mind 'I'm a genius, they're not.' And he threw himself into his work again. Studying the latest journals, looking for any experimental treatments, drugs and procedures that would arm him in his quest to defy death. Little sleep and barely adequate letters and phonecalls to his folks and his best friend Vinnie; the excuse of work always butting in.

He had lasted eighteen months.

It had been on the day that he was due to hand in his resignation to the Chief Trauma Surgeon when he was approached by a middle aged man with slightly graying hair and a severe expression on his face and stiff upper lip that screamed 'British' to anyone with the wit to see it; the Saville Row suit merely added to it. He was accompanied by dark haired young man that looked to be just out of High School, and in a remarkable contrast to his companion was dressed in simple jeans and a loose shirt with crosstrainers on his feet squeaking on the shiny hospital floor.

"Greetings, Dr Howser," said the Brit. "My name is Rupert Giles and this is my…colleague, Alexander Harris." And handed a card to him with details of a company called 'DWX Innovations' based in a small town he'd never heard of before in California. They spoke at length how they were looking for a medical professional that fit certain 'criteria' to fill a research position in their company; and that he was 'according to their research' ideal for it.

At the time Douglas thought it sounded like a nice change of pace from the absolutely exhausting work here in Maryland. He honestly hadn't thought about going into medical research, but in hindsight it should have been obvious to him. There he could ply his genius with hardly any constraining demands on his time. And best of all Mr Giles mentioned that the budget he would be working with would 'more than fit any requirements'.

They then handed him what looked to be a vacuum-sealed throat lozenge that was colored a dark coffee brown.

"This is a little something we've developed, helps for Kidney Dialysis," said Giles his mouth twitching in amusement. "You can analyze it with whatever resources you have available here, or better yet, simply give it to a patient to chew on. You'll be surprised at the results."

"I can't give this to any patient without FDA approval…" said Douglas with a frown.

"In that case, simply analyze it," said Alexander with a shrug.

"Contact us with your answer."

And with that they left.

Getting that innocuous little lozenge analyzed was a little adventure of traded favors in itself, which he wouldn't bother trying to remember in later life, best forgotten. But some hunch told him as well to keep the results secret and away from the other lab techs. Staring at the printout analysis sheet a few days later, he tried his best not to simply gape stupidly at the data in front of him.

He found his mobile phone and dialed the number of DWX on the card.

"Hello, Dr Howser," said the voice of Mr Giles. Douglas was still so stupefied that he did not even question how they could know it was him calling. "How can I help you?"

"Where did you get this?!"

"Ah, yes, as we said, we made it, Doctor," reiterated Giles.

"Do you know what _this_ does?!"

"Of course," said Giles, his voice totally unperturbed. "It removes the need for a transplant when Kidney dialysis occurs. The specifics are somewhat beyond me I'm afraid. Though all our information on it would be made available once you entered into our employ."

Suffice it to say, he handed in his resignation the next day.

Mr Giles faxed through his contract and he was not surprised to see a very ironclad non-disclosure agreement attached to it. It basically stated that the research and work that DWX was engaged in was highly confidential and should he find himself with loose lips he would quickly discover a whole world of legal and 'unspecified unpleasant' consequences. If that didn't convince him of the seriousness and mettle of DWX, then the very opulent Gulfstream private jet that picked him up a week later for his flight to Sunnydale did.

He was met in Sunnydale once again by Mr Giles and they left in of all things an actual Aston Martin.

"So are you the Director of DWX?" asked Douglas curiously, over the thrum of the powerful engine. They had been rather vague about who was top dog in the company.

"On the books, that would be me," confirmed Giles. "In practice, however, decision making is in the hands of a 'collective' within the company. There aren't that many of us in DWX so it makes things easier."

Douglas pondered over this dynamic, "How many are there?"

"If you decide to join we will have nine people."

He tried his best not to gape again. "You only have a total staff of eight and you came up with that Dialysis cure all by yourself…is DWX a collection of geniuses?"

"In a way," said Giles vaguely. "However, DWX is not just for medical research, we're primarily a technology developer…the Dialysis cure came as a byproduct of sorts from other efforts."

Douglas tried to imagine what they could be working on that would make them consider a cure for all kidney disorders a mere byproduct…and failed. He shrugged off the line of thought and zeroed on the next pressing question.

"Why did you have me sign the non-disclosure agreement, and not the contract?"

"We must first…expose you to certain truths and elements of our work before you could consider long term employment with us," explained Giles vaguely. All sorts of alarm bells were ringing in head at this statement. "It requires a great intellectual flexibility to last with DWX." And again, like a fool, he ignored his instincts…but that Dialysis cure was the near perfect lasso to keep him roped.

The evening that followed shattered his comfortable illusions of his place on this Earth, and the greater Universe beyond.

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He groaned in annoyance as the bed was raised to a sitting incline.

"Good morning, Doctor Howser, and how are we feeling?" asked Xander with a wide amused smile.

"It wasn't a dream was it?" asked Douglas blearily.

"I'm afraid not," said Xander with empathy on his face. "I am an android hybrid, my girlfriend is a Borg hybrid, that was a Vulcan you met, and you did see a vampire getting dusted in a somewhat controlled environment, magic exists…what else…oh yes, you are currently in a late twenty fourth century Sickbay built with knowledge from the Star Trek Universe; from where you will be working to slowly disseminate that advanced medical knowledge into the world where it can do some good."

"Oh," said Douglas faintly.

"You're not gonna faint on me again, Doc, are you?"

"I did not faint," snapped Douglas indignantly, "I passed out from severe emotional stress after having my intellectual legs knocked out from under me."

"Good, you have backbone," said Xander approvingly, "you'll need that and a lot more to last in this town, Doc. Trust me."

"No kidding," sighed Douglas, staring warily at the ground off his bed.

"Relax, Doc, the hellmouth is over the Highschool, not here," chuckled Xander, correctly interpreting the look. "And it's closed at the moment and no one, that we know of at least, is planning to try and open it. It's a tricky proposition doing so in any case, not something any sane demon would really try."

"There are insane ones though, aren't there?"

"Unfortunately yes, and we try our best to stop them before they can do any damage," nodded Xander. "So what do you say to getting out of here, and getting the five cent tour?"

"Thought you'd never ask."

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"Is that what I think it is?" said Douglas in amazement.

"If you mean the basic spaceframe of a _Delta Flyer_, then yes," said Xander with a wide grin. They were standing in a vast lab that to the Doctor's eyes was straight out of the movies or TV show. Devices, machines whose function he could only guess at and all a manner of computers were carefully arrayed all over the space in front of them but furthest away from the entrance was a large open area and within sat the gleaming skeleton of the small but extremely durable ship that served the Starship _Voyager_ in another Universe.

They threaded their way through the lab and came to a stop just a few feet away from it.

Now that he was closer he could actually see that the frame of the ship was in fact not resting on the floor at all, but being suspended in midair by what had to some form of small anti-gravity emitter attached to strategic points on it.

"I'm guessing that you didn't want to dig through the floor to access the undercarriage," commented the Doc.

"Yeah," nodded Xander, "there's a basement floor below us which houses the campus computer core and zero-point reactor."

"The fact that you have a working and viable ZP device shouldn't surprise me, should it?" asked the Doc wryly.

Their attention was drawn by footsteps from the other side of the incomplete ship. A lithe, very beautiful figure wearing a dark blue jumpsuit that was clinging to her body appeared. Douglas felt slightly awed as his mind recognized her…T'Jen. An honest to goodness…extra-terrestrial was standing not a few feet away from him. Her existence was the straw that had broken the camel's back. Vampires, demons, magic…those all still had firm origins on Earth and he could somewhat wrap his mind around…but too see an actual 'alien'. It was the confirmation and realization of a dream…to in his lifetime meet another form of intelligent, sentient life. Cold rationality had told him that it would not happen…but it was wrong.

And so he had done the only thing he could when he saw his first Vulcan of all things…he passed out.

"T'Jen," greeted Xander with a nod. "How is building progressing?"

"Greetings Alexander," said T'Jen neutrally, in her hand was a gray device with a flickering pink emitter. "The _Delta Flyer_ is progressing apace and as we expected, I find myself illogically wishing that Trip was here to help me."

"You're using metallurgy and techniques two centuries beyond your own, Commander, and there is no rush," reassured Xander with a smile.

"Doctor Howser," said T'Jen turning to face him, "how are you feeling?"

"Much recovered, thank you…um, Commander," said Douglas unsure of the manner of address with which to use for her. "I was so sure I would have a nasty bruise from my…encounter with the floor, but I seem to have lucked out."

"You did in fact have a bruise," said T'Jen evenly, "a Dermal regenerator was used to treat your wound."

"Oh…" said Douglas, feeling another twinge of excitement…another amazing medical invention to play with.

They said their goodbyes and walked out of the lab and down the long hallway that connected it to the main office building.

"Why is she working on the Flyer by herself?" asked Douglas curiously.

"Mainly because the rest of us are too busy on other projects that have priority at the moment. Interstellar exploration, while something that we all look forward to, is not where our focus can be at the moment, because of the Angelus situation; which will be explained more fully to you later today after you agree to join us."

"Are you kidding?" scoffed Douglas, "after all this, you think I'd walk away?"

"I do not presume to know you beyond what is on record," shrugged Xander. "It's hard to predict how people react to the supernatural. You could've embraced it with open mind or you could've gone mad and booked yourself into a funny farm."

"Open mind all the way here," said Douglas seriously, tapping his temple, "and you can expect my signature on that dotted line too."

"Good, I really didn't relish the idea of trying to find another Doctor."

"Just out of curiosity, what other projects are you working on?"

"Well, Dawn is working on a subspace sensor array, Willow is trying her luck with building a Holodeck, and I'm working on a Regenerative Shield Emitter for the campus."

"Aren't we secure here?" asked Douglas, feeling a brief stab of fear.

"Our current security is adequate, but there is a concern that with sufficient numbers, vampires could overwhelm it, with a Regen Shield online every vampire on the planet could hurl themselves against this place and it wouldn't make a bit of difference."

"Cool," grinned Douglas.

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**Sunnydale State Beach**

A fire roared in the evening starlight and the sound of revelry and celebrating echoed into the night. Fifty odd students were gathered in various little cliques and groups, chatting, drinking (in some cases with cleverly disguised alcohol variations). A stereo system from one of the student's cars was pumping out music that was quite successful in drowning out the sound of the ocean waves.

Xander stood with Cordelia and Willow near the fire, the latter two warming themselves by it.

"Whose stupid idea was it to have a party out here when it's this cold?" said Xander, shaking his head.

"I think it's festive," countered Willow with a smile, "a party with nature."

"Well, it's the team's choice. It was their victory," said Cordelia.

"The Swim team's victory was rather unexpected though," said Xander mock-suspiciously. "I mean look at that," he gestured to a member of the swim team in question that was staggering past with a girl under each arm. "Dodd McAlvy. Last month he was the guy with bad breath who waxes his back and thought that Breaststroke was a sex technique. He joins the team on an impulse, amazingly wins a few meets and suddenly is in the 'cool' clique."

"Well, all I know is my cheerleading squad wasted a lot of pep on losers, it's about time our school excelled at something," said Cordelia astutely.

"You're forgetting our high mortality rate," perked Willow.

Cordelia grinned at that. Xander turned in the direction he had last seen Buffy and sure enough she was still sitting off to one side initially by herself looking pensively over the ocean and was soon joined by Cameron Walker, another of the newly minted swim team 'jocks'. She hardly looked as if she was doing her part in protecting this gathering of Sunnydale High students.

"And already the newly hatched vultures are circling," mumbled Xander with contempt.

"Don't tell me you're jealous?" said Cordelia with a frown.

"Oh yeah, I am," countered Xander sarcastically, "I just already have a girlfriend for the heck of it. Of course not. I'm just showing my contempt for the local jock population."

"Somebody help me!"

Xander's hand had reached into his trenchcoat for his hidden UMP as he whirled towards the cry for help before seeing what actually was happening. Jonathan Levinson was being manhandled by Dodd and was shoving the poor geek face first into the filled water tub that had stored all the drinks for the party.

"Pathetic," snarled Xander and strode towards the scene. Dodd pulled Jonathan's head out of the water and held him back by the hair.

"Come on, Jonny, you gotta hold your breath longer than that if you want to make the team! Hey somebody time him!"

He was just about to shove Jonathan's face into the tub again when Xander reached them.

"Time this."

The next thing anybody saw was that Jonathan was free from Dodd's clutches and struggling to stand while coughing, and the bullying swim team member flew through the air to land jarringly on his back.

"Hey, Xander, what's your problem?" groaned Dodd.

"You had it coming bro," chuckled Cameron, who had come over with Buffy during the commotion. Dodd managed to stand and bore down on Xander angrily.

"You want to go flying again, my pleasure," said Xander evenly with a come hither gesture.

"Chill dude," said Gage, another swim team member, who intercepted Dodd before he could do anything further. "A bunch of us are gonna take a little night dip down on the beach. You in?"

"Whatever," said Dodd, mollified somewhat but still glaring at Xander as the two left for the surf.

Buffy had turned her attention to Jonathan in the meantime. "Hey, let's get you a towel."

"No," said Jonathan, waving her off and turned to Xander, "why didn't you mind your own business? I can handle this without your help." And then without a further word turned and left.

"No good deed goes unpunished," said Xander with sigh. "Speaking of which, you Miss Summers are hereby banned from further moping." In a flash he poked his fingers into her flanks and tickled. Buffy's indignant squeal echoed into the night as she tried to run away from him, he kept up with her and herded her back to the fire where an amused Willow and snickering Cordelia was waiting.

"How did you know?" accused Buffy struggling to contain the remnants of her own giggles. Xander merely grinned in answer. "I'm going to kill Dawn."

"Ah, ah, ah," said Xander, waggling his finger in remonstration. "No talk of that kind…we're friends and now we are only talking of the good things in life…"

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The next day showed once again that nothing really good happened in Sunnydale without an equal measure of badness that followed in its wake. Xander, Giles and Willow were hard busy researching this latest curveball that the hellmouth had thrown.

"Hey guys, what's up?" said Buffy, bouncing into the library.

"Apparently, some remains were found this morning on the beach," said Giles, looking up from his book, "some human remains."

"Dodd McAlvy's remains," supplied Willow next.

"Vampire?"

"No, he was eviscerated, nothing left but skin and cartilage," said Giles grimly.

"So we are definitely looking for a new 'customer' we haven't seen before in our lovely town," said Xander thoughtfully.

"Something ripped him open and ate out his insides?" said Buffy looking disgusted.

"Like an Oreo cookie," commented Willow, "except, you know, without the chocolatey cookie goodness."

"Yes, Principal Snyder has asked the faculty to keep the news quiet for now, so as to not unduly upset the students," said Giles.

"So, we're looking for a beastie, that eats humans whole except for the skin," said Willow gesturing to the books.

"And so far we've found nothing," said Xander in frustration, "my occult database has nada results on anything like this."

"Any demons with high cholesterol then?" said Buffy, obviously trying to crack a joke. Giles simply gave her his look that this was not something to joke about. "You're gonna think about that later and you're gonna laugh mister.

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Another quirk of life as an android was that Xander did not really have to eat. He did not have digestion at all, but he still had a fully functional appetite. The mechanically munched food was merely 'expelled' from his body once a day. Hence the reason why, later that afternoon with the Scoobies into full research mode, that he strongly needed the taste of sugary fizzy drink goodness.

He was walking into the student lounge counting the appropriate number of coins when he was bumped into by Cameron Walker coming round the corner and causing the change to fall to the ground.

"Hey! Watch it!" snarked Cameron, obviously the swim jock was still in a snit over Xander managing to keep him away from Buffy all night during the party the previous day.

"Oh, forgive me, your Swimteamliness," rejoined Xander mockingly.

"Loser," said Cameron.

"Oh, really, then why is my GPA higher than yours now…" said Xander airily. "Oh, by the way, Buffy is not on your list of privileges, better get that fact in your head right now."

Cameron sneered rather ineffectually and left. Xander sighed shaking his head and started to pick up the fallen change. He rather wondered why, in retrospect, anyone cared about popularity in High School. It wasn't remarked on your resume that you were 'cool' and its not like any employer in the real world would give a shit, when it was skills and true personality that mattered. This insight struck him as something that would never have occurred to him prior to being Data-fied.

He shrugged the thought away and pushed the appropriate numbers of coins into the vending machine.

"Grape, orange, orange, grape," he mumbled, his finger hovering over the buttons.

His contented thoughts were rudely interrupted when a horrifying scream rent the air. He whirled around and sped off towards the cafeteria where now huge crashing noises was coming from and pulled out his Type 1 Phaser from a sleeve.

When he entered, the place was in a complete shambles; tables and chairs knocked over and in some cases bent beyond recognition. He pulled out his tricorder and immediately began scanning. He was distracted though when he passed an overturned table and saw that behind it were clearly Cameron Walker's clothes and a steaming mush of skin that had once covered the flesh of the arrogant swimmer.

"Oh my…"

His tricorder beeped and he looked down at it in his hand.

The next moment he whirled and fired a shot directly into the huge green humanoid figure, with catfish whiskers, shark like teeth and scaly ridges on its head, that had blocked the doorway behind him. It roared with pain as a large hole was blown straight through it. It tried to run, but another blast from Xander flung it off its feet and crashing into the wall with its resultant momentum.

His tricorder confirmed that it was dead.

"Xander to Dawn," he tapped his communicator under his jacket.

"_Hey Xan, what's up?_"

"I'm sending you two sets of coordinates, one is for a dead demon that's been eating the swim team for lunch, the other is the remains of Cameron Walker, beam both to Sickbay, have the Doc take a good look at it."

"_Got it. Sure thing, Xan, Dawn out._"

A few moments later there was a twinkle of blue light and both demon and dead remains vanished.

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**DWX Sickbay, Sunnydale**

Doc Howser came out of the Surgical room dressed in his medical greens and with a huff removed latex gloves from his hands that was stained with awful looking goop and chucked it into a sterile bin. Xander saw that the Doc had already made a few personal touches to the Sickbay; the adjoining office, which had a clear view of the Sickbay, had numerous pictures of his family hanging on the empty wall spaces. And despite the technology available to him, it seemed the Doc still preferred the tactile feel of paper and books, as a small bookshelf with various medical textbooks and journals crammed into it was also there.

"What did you find, Doctor?" asked Giles.

"Well for my first ever autopsy of a mutated human I found a lot," said the Doc grimly.

"Mutated?" said Willow, looking green.

"Human?" said Xander softly, his figurative heart sinking to his stomach.

"Oh sorry, Xander, I use the word 'human' simply because that's what this 'mutant' started out as," said the Doc. "It's amazing how quickly one can get answers with this equipment, this would've taken me two weeks with standard DNA analysis techniques," he enthused, looking lost in his excitement.

"Doctor," coughed Giles pointedly.

"Oh sorry," said the Doc, smiling abashedly. "The 'fish monster' as I've loosely designated it, clearly has human characteristics. Its DNA clearly shows that it has been warped and rewritten using a rather ingenious modified rhinovirus carrying a payload of specific fish genetic material…I didn't think that the technique had been perfected yet…its still in the experimental stages at Johns Hopkins. Anyway, when I compare the DNA in the remains of Cameron Walker to the fish monster…there's quite a number of matches on its chromosomes…enough to let me conclude that the fish monster didn't kill Cameron Walker…"

"The fish monster _is_ or rather _was_, Cameron Walker," said Xander with a frown.

"Yes," nodded the Doc, "which likely means that Dodd McAlvy, albeit a fish monster version of him, is out there."

"Dodd McAlvy and Cameron Walker were number one and two swimmers on the team," said Buffy from her seat on one of the Biobeds.

"You're thinking that next best number three will be next on Doctor Freakenstein's mutation list?" asked Xander.

"Yeah, Gage Petronzi," nodded Buffy.

"Then there's the question of just who is doing this and why?" posited Giles.

"This season was the first time the swim team won since it was started fifteen years ago," said Willow in realization. "They were hardly pegged to do well this year when the team roster was announced."

"That leaves an obvious culprit," said the Doc. "Someone who stood to gain the most from having the team succeed, someone with easy access to the swimmers.

"Coach Marin," said Giles darkly.

"The rhinovirus clearly doesn't work as advertised though," said Xander thoughtfully.

"Of course not," snorted Doc Howser, "the human genome is not something you combine with fish genetics. It's a fluke the rhinovirus is even producing a viable lifeform. I also don't think that the swimmers know the real deal…they probably think they're getting steroids or something similar."

"So what do we do now?" asked Buffy.

"I think," said Giles, tapping his chin thoughtfully, "first, we should see to Gage Petronzi, if he's been exposed to the rhinovirus it's clearly only a matter of time before he transforms. Is there perhaps anything that can be done for him, Doctor Howser?"

"I could but I would need a sample of the original rhinovirus used on him, and I need Xander to unblock the encryption on the gene engineering techniques available in the medical database."

"You found those already?" said Xander in askance.

"I skimmed through the entire medical database and that section caught my eye with regards to techniques to reverse cancers and genetic defects," explained the Doc. "I barely looked at the section on Augments," he reassured. Xander nodded and quickly walked over to the nearby medical LCARS console and his hands blurred as he tapped in a three hundred and sixty five digit passcode.

'_Encryption lockouts bypassed_," droned the female computer voice. "_Doctor Douglas Howser added to restricted file access list."_

"Ok, the Doc develops a cure but then how do we give it to Gage Petronzi?" said Willow.

"Convincing him of the truth would be difficult," said Doc Howser wryly. "And there's no telling how much time he's got left. If he refuses it…"

"Then I'll knock him out and dose him with it," said Buffy firmly, "this town has it bad enough with demons and vamps, we don't need mutant fish men walking around too."

"Then there's the matter of Dodd McAlvy, could he also be restored to human by the same cure?" asked Giles.

"No," said the Doc, "once the changes reach that level there's not enough human genome left for a cure to work with. Dodd McAlvy is gone."

"Blast," sighed Giles, polishing his glasses. "It seems then our course is clear if we encounter the fish monster."

"What about Coach Marin?" asked Xander his lips thinning.

"If it is indeed him that has caused these mutations then he can be…detained by the Watcher's Council," explained Giles delicately.

"They can do that?" asked Doc Howser in surprise.

"Yes, they frequently have to deal with people who delve in the black arts, warlocks, dark witches and the like. People that intentionally commit crimes using the supernatural that no court of law can successfully prosecute."

Xander knew that what Giles wasn't saying was that the Council also preferred to send 'wetworks' teams after such people as well if the severity of the deaths caused by the supernatural phenomena they instigated was bad enough. It would conflict with the Doc's ethical principles, hence the fact that Giles did not extol on everything the Council did or could do. Xander doubted even Buffy knew this.

"In the meantime I think it wise if we put some protection around Mr Petronzi, Dodd McAlvy the monster may come calling," said Giles. "Buffy can you discreetly tail him?"

"I'm on it," she said and breezed out of the Sickbay.

"Now to get the rhinovirus and prove Coach Marin is involved," mused Xander, "hmm, I think I've an idea how."

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**Sunnydale High, Swimming Pool**

The whistle resounded throughout the enclosed swimming pool and six members of the swimming team flew from the blocks and splashed powerfully into the water. Xander emerged from the locker room with a slight feeling of being totally exposed, it probably had something to do with the fact that he was only wearing a Speedo.

He had joined the swim team after it became clear that they were suddenly lacking two swimmers, he had tried out yesterday and easily qualified. Coach Marin had looked rather surprised that he did so well; as if he couldn't believe that Xander could do so well, which wasn't promising for the man's innocence.

Of course, Xander's android body, like Data's had neutral buoyancy and with his strength he could power through water quite effortlessly, he in fact had to slow himself down quite a bit so as to not break the world record for something as measly as a High School swim team tryout.

His goals were not only to find the virus but also to keep an eye on Gage when Buffy couldn't. Speaking of which the previous night tailing him she'd also had another melee with Angelus who'd decided he wanted to recruit some more muscle from among Buffy's class to become vampires.

Gage had gotten bitten, but before Angelus could finish the job he had abruptly stopped and spit the blood he had drunk back out. Clearly another indication that Gage's physiology was different or changing. Angelus had managed to get away when he used Gage as leverage but on the plus side the swimmer's eyes had been opened to the truth and they doubted he would resist in receiving the cure.

Xander approached the blocks and spotted Buffy, Willow and Cordelia in the stands all looking rather…stupefied. His mouth twitched. It was the first time they had seen him so…undressed and he had to admit to being rather proud of his own physique…despite the circumstances it had been developed under.

He noticed that Gage had stopped in the middle of his lap of the pool and was waving at Buffy in a friendly fashion; clearly they had the victim/savior friendship thing going already.

"Gage! You with us or not!" snapped Coach Marin. The swimmer nodded and got back to his lap. "Ok, next group on the blocks!" Xander mounted the block, a tinge of nervousness coming on due to his friends presence.

'_Forget they are there, Xander._' Said Data from within. _'Focus and just do what you did yesterday_.'

"Okey dokey," he replied with a mumble. The whistle blew again and Xander tipped his balance forward and dove for the water, pushing off from the block. Water tunneled around his vision and the world changed to a blue, chlorinated vision of itself…he started to pull and push his arms and kick with loose feet in the classic freestyle swimming stroke.

'_I'm detecting something odd in the water,_' came Data's surprised voice in his mind.

'_Wait a minute, I see it too,"_ said Xander, the world had again suddenly changed to his perception. He imagined if a subspace sensor could tell the world what it saw, then this was it. '_It's as if I'm a subspace sensor on two legs.'_

'_An apt analogy, clearly this is part of the 'enhancements' that Q mentioned he was making to our construction._'

'_I thought we knew all of our own capabilities_.'

'_So did I. Fascinating. I can see the new internal system responsible for this…its amazingly small and complex beyond the standards of the 24__th__ Century._'

'_Why did it come online now?_'

'_I am unable to conjecture…ah, I see, Q's sense of humor, look ahead_.'

He was nearly ending his first lap and saw what Data was talking about. He felt a stab of horror and disgust and abruptly swam towards the edge of the pool and got out as if the water was on fire.

"Yulllgghh," he said, rubbing frantically at the residual water on his body. Buffy, Cordelia and Willow came running; clearly thinking that something was wrong.

"Xander, what is it?" "Are you ok?" "Whatsamatter?"

He stopped rubbing and cringed at the stares he had drawn for his behavior.

"The pool…" he said haltingly, "someone peed in it."

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The rather intolerable practice session had ended. Xander rushed himself into the showers and hurriedly used up nearly a whole bar of soap to clean up. Coach Marin insisted though that his swimmers must use the steam room after any practice to loosen up sore and stiff muscles. Xander never got stiff or sore, so he merely luxuriated in the heat of the steam with the seven other members of his new team.

'_Xander, I believe it wise to take a look at our newly discovered internal sensor,_' said Data.

'_Why?_'

'_See for yourself._'

He sighed. He had avoided 'looking' at the readings it was projecting in his mind simply because he didn't want to be reminded of what he was swimming in for the whole afternoon; it was also a bit of a information overload to constantly know the exact composition of everything he was staring at. With a sigh he brought the scans into focus and blinked in astonishment.

'_You've got to be kidding me? Are we…'_

'_Internal diagnostics show no trace of it in our biological systems…since its based on a rhinovirus perhaps it requires inhalation for infection to occur…'_

'_But we need a sample now…'_

'_Perhaps the towel around your waist will be sufficient.'_

'_We need more._'

When the twenty minutes were up, Xander burst out of the room first and hurried to his locker. He grabbed an empty water bottle that he had used up this afternoon and sprinted back. Seconds later he returned with the closed bottle filled with rapidly condensing steam. He whipped his towel off and placed it in his gymn bag followed by the bottle.

He dressed and tried his best to move at the same lethargic pace his fellow swimmers were moving at.

'_I hope the Doc can work quick, the entire team is exposed.'_

He walked out of the locker room and hurried up to the waiting Buffy standing a few feet away. She looked rather bored and he didn't blame her, he supposed it got old quite fast just watching a bunch of guys swimming up and down a pool.

"This undercover thing is not all its cracked up to be, it looks so cool in the movies," said Xander grumpily. "Twenty minutes in a hot room with a bunch of sweaty guys…"

"Where's Gage?" she asked.

"Still inside, putting his lace up sneakers on, he doesn't have the Velcro kind," he answered. "By the way, avoid the steam room at all costs. The mutant rhinovirus is in the steam itself."

"Mutating steam," said Buffy her eyes astonished, "there's a new one."

"Yeah, got samples for the Doc in here," he said, shaking his bag.

"So the entire swim team is gonna turn into walking Jaws if the Doc doesn't do his thing."

"That pretty much covers it. Anyway," he patted her shoulder. "Tag, you're it."

'OH MY GOD!'

Xander and Buffy looked at each with wide eyes and rushed into locker room. The first thing that assaulted their senses was an awful smell that was like a combination of sewer, dirty sock and rotten fish. The next was the sight of a cowering Gage as the fish monster loomed above him snarling and growling. Xander immediately bolted for Gage and pulled him away from it, while Buffy fell into a fighting stance covering their retreat.

Xander left the frightened swimmer on the floor and turned to see if Buffy needed any help. But oddly enough the fish monster was just standing there and roaring at them, not moving to attack at all.

It was then that the cadence of screaming from Gage changed audibly, one of fear, to one of pain. Xander whirled back and realized that it was too late for the swimmer. Gage was in agony, writhing on the floor and his entire body convulsing in spasms.

"Shit, he's changing!" said Xander. They watched in horror as Gage, still screaming managed to get to his knees, ripping his shirt off as if it was wet paper. Then he stabbed his hands into his chest and began to tear at his own flesh. Beneath that flesh was the chest of another fish monster. There was another horrible tearing sound and all the human flesh and skin of Gage was torn apart in a spurt of blood. A whole new fish monster slowly rose to its full height.

"Back to back!" snapped Buffy. They both fell into fighting stances ready for any attack, and at this point Xander wished he had taken the time properly re-arm himself with his Phaser when he had changed, which was still in the bag just outside the hall. But he was so caught up in the discovery of his new internal sensor system and the mutating steam…ah, no use crying over it now. But they were neatly trapped now between Dodd fish monster and Gage fish monster. Both of which advanced on them.

Buffy executed a perfect roundhouse kick to Dodd, whilst Xander blocked a slashing swipe from Gage and retaliated with a lightning fast double handed strike to what seemed like a good place to wind it if not fatally damage it. Dodd lost balance and roared as it fell, whilst Gage was picked up off its feet and crashed against the wall, causing brinks to crumble from it.

The monsters proved their resiliency when both managed to surge to a vertical base again and charged forward. Buffy decided to improvise, flinging a trashcan into the face of Dodd, whilst Xander grabbed a mop and snapped it in two on his knee to meet the attack of Gage. Dodd; distracted with getting a trashcan in its face, got a stomach full of Slayer powered kicks in short order. Xander lashed out with his makeshift short staffs as soon as Gage came into range and hammered blows towards its face and neck.

The roars of pain from the creatures echoed loudly in the locker room, as they fell back again under the onslaught from Slayer and Android.

At this point, Coach Marin appeared on the scene and took in the scene with a gasp. The creatures on the other hand decided retreat was the better part of valor and broke off their attacks on Xander and Buffy. They dove for an open grate on the tiled floor and slid slimily one after the other into the maw of the grate.

Xander dropped one of his 'staffs' and advanced on Coach Marin and grabbed the frightened man by the shirt before he could recover his wits.

"We are going to have a chat."

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**Sunnydale Library, the same evening…**

Giles was looking distinctly 'Ripper-ish' as he stood over Coach Carl Marin, his eyes burning in anger at the man who was looking distinctly uncomfortable under that gaze.

"What is the meaning of this?" said the Coach.

"This is where you face the consequences of your actions, Carl," said Giles with narrowed eyes. "Or are you telling me you have no idea that your swimmers were being gassed with a virus to give them fish characteristics. Something, which has spiraled out of control and mutated them into ghastly creatures of the sea."

"Of course not," he denied.

"He's lying," said Xander idly from his seat.

"I am not lying, boy! Do you think I'd do something like that to my swimmers?"

"Oh Coachy, that won't fly, you're the only suspect, since you're one of two people in the school who has ready access to the steam room, and I doubt Carlos the janitor from Mexico, has had access in the past to classified Soviet Union documents, unlike you who used to work for the State Department between '89 and '91 and was on the task force sent to help the Russians decommission their Bioweapons division. Your past qualifications in genetic science is not on your resume submitted to Sunnydale High but they are on the State Department records."

Coach Marin was gaping like a fish out of water and then hissed, "How could you possibly know that?"

"That is not important," declared Giles firmly.

"You asshole!" screamed one of the five remaining swim team members from where they were locked in the library cage; after having been gathered by Giles and Buffy. They had already seen the truth of what was happening to them when one of them, Sean, transformed in front of their eyes as Buffy and Giles herded them back into the school. "When we get our hands on you…"

"Relax chaps," said Giles reassuringly, "an antidote is being worked on as we speak."

Marin snorted and sneered, "Those fools at Sunnydale General won't have clue what to do…"

Giles just smiled enigmatically and ignored the barb. "Now there is the question about what to do with you?"

"Give him to Dodd and Gage!" called one of the swimmers.

"Infect him, see how he likes it!"

"Rather poetic justice that last one," said Giles with an evil grin that made Marin shift in his seat. "No, it's prison for you…but not just any prison…" Giles abruptly raised a tranquilizer pistol from his jacket and with a muffled report; a dart sprouted from Marin's neck and he instantly slumped into the land of dreams.

"Xander, can you see to Marin?" asked Giles. He nodded and effortlessly picked up the limp form of the Coach, slinging him like a sack of potatoes over the shoulder. "These are the map coordinates of the prison run by the Council, I have already phoned ahead. You are expected."

Xander pocketed the note and carried his load out of the library.

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**Sunnydale High, Student Lounge**

"How's the swim team doing?" asked Cordelia.

"The Doc says he managed a cure after working through the night," said Xander with a grin, "he's coming over later in the afternoon to give it to everyone infected."

"That'll be a relief to them, they must be stir crazy just sitting in that library cage all day," said Willow, grinning at Buffy.

Giles entered the lounge and approached them with a relieved grin. "The people from animal control just left. The creatures are no longer in the sewers under the school…they have made a dash for it apparently."

"Does that mean we're going to have to hunt them down?" asked Willow.

"No, I don't think so," said Buffy, "I don't think we'll be seeing them anymore. Now that Coach Marin is gone."

"Where do you think they'll go?" asked Giles.

"Home."

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_A/N; Next chapter folks is 'Becoming' and ending the Angelus arc. I gave you a hint in this one of one Universe I've fused into it (Not Doogie Howser which is merely me borrowing him as DWX's Doctor, credit to whoever owns that show property). You'll get a definitive clue next chapter, which is the other Xover…and will give you an idea of the Galaxy beyond Earth and the threats which our Scoobies will be battling._


	8. Chapter 8 Becoming

**Chapter 8 – Becoming**

Buffy Summers twirled to avoid the lunges of the two vampires as they tried to double team her, she kicked one and used her momentum to launch herself into another kick that sent the other vamp falling back onto the damp green grass of the cemetery. The other tried to rush her but she merely avoided it and stepped past him to redirect his energy and sent him flying to crash painfully into the hard marble of a nearby tombstone. It was a Vulcan move from an art called _Soos Morann_ that Xander had showed her.

"Nice try," she commented idly.

The other vampire came at her again with a vicious swing. She ducked it and used the opening to punch him in the face, gut and again in the face. The vamp fell to the ground dazed. The first one had recovered from his meeting with the tombstone and attacked with a kick. Again Buffy deflected it easily with an arm, backhanded him in the face, followed by a jab in the gut and grabbing his arm, twisted it high and forced him to his knees, the pain of the maneuver clear in the vamps face.

The second vamp had now recovered again and tried to rush her, but she calmly held her submission move with one hand and retrieved a stake with the other and in a flash it surged to meet the surprised vamp that had not seen it in time…it exploded into ashes.

She let go of the remaining vamp and swiftly punched it in the face, making him roll away.

"I want you to take a message to Angel for me. Tell him I'm done waiting. I'm taking the fight to him," said Buffy coldly. "You got that? Need me to write it down?"

The vampire ignored her completely and charged her. In another deft move she grabbed him in a takedown throw, using his own momentum to slam him into the ground; the stake surged forward again and there was an explosion of ashes.

"All right, I'll tell him myself." She turned to regard a nearby crypt and the pool of shadow formed by the moonlight. "You could've helped."

"You had things well under control," said Xander, emerging from the shadow, his UMP held loose but ready in his hands. "You didn't need my help with those two losers. So that makes what…five vampires three nights?"

"Yep, but no Angel."

Xander cocked his head in amusement and his eyes briefly flickered into the shadows of a distant part of the cemetery, just over a hundred meters away. It was such a shame that his UMP had only a fifty-meter reliable range due to the modified ammo.

"Angelus, while powerful, is a coward who lets minions do the day- to-day dying," said Xander his mouth twitching. "His ego can't stand the thought that he would ever die in such a non-grand manner as a routine patrol of a Slayer in your average cemetery." He promptly leveled the UMP and fired four shots into the night. Buffy whirled in the direction Xander had aimed and caught the flash of a figure retreating as it was briefly illuminated in the moonlight.

"Angel was spying on us," she said wryly, shaking her head. "I wish I'd had a better deal on the spidey-sense package."

"It's more a case of being on the hellmouth than any lack of skill on your part Buffster," said Xander with grin. "You're spidey-sense is a like an ear, and the hellmouth is like a giant speaker at a rock concert. It's drowning out your ability to hear the vamps, as it were, at least until they're close."

"Oh," she said in realization. "Why didn't Giles tell me this?"

"Perhaps he thought you knew or deduced it yourself already," shrugged Xander.

"We better go," said Buffy, glancing at her watch. "I haven't even started studying for finals yet!"

"You've had a lot on your mind," said Xander on her behalf, joining her as they headed out of the cemetery. "I could tutor you or Willow."

Buffy snorted and shook her head, "Xan, no offense, but before Halloween, if someone told me you'd be tutoring me in the future…I'd have asked them to have their head examined."

Xander chuckled at the thought. "Yeah, but just think of the satisfaction you'll feel after finals are all over and you've passed everything."

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Sunnydale High Cafeteria 

"So Angel's too much of a coward to take me on face to face," said Buffy, to Oz, Willow and Cordelia, both she and Xander had recounted last night's patrol for them. Willow was sitting on Oz's lap as was her firm girlfriendy right to do.

"Do you really think you're ready to face him?" asked Willow worriedly.

"I wish people would stop asking me that," said Buffy with an explosive sigh. "Yes, I'm ready. Willing and able. Just the one test I might actually pass."

"Don't say that!" objected Willow. "Xander and I will get you past this semester if we have to sweat blood…or WD40 in Xander's case."

"I don't need a lubricant in my joints to keep going Wills," said Xander with a chuckle. "And I rather not see you sweat blood in my lifetime."

"It was only metaphor blood," rejoined Willow.

"I think you'd sweat cute blood," said Oz in amusement to her, which made her beam at him.

"Sixth period, after my computer class, we'll rock on chemistry," said Willow to Buffy with her resolve face on. "

"Ready to rock."

"Boy, Willow, you've really got the teaching bug: taking over computer class from Ms Calendar, tutoring…" said Cordelia.

"I love it, I really do, not to mention me and Oz's work for DWX," she said with a wide smile, hugging her boyfriend.

"I thought you'd have to have help," said Xander in realization. "You did your first project in half the time I expected, and now you're almost done with the next."

"Good stuff to know and learn," said Oz meaningfully.

"You! Are we having a chair shortage?" came the sudden question from Principal Snyder, who had come from the kitchen; probably to complain that the food wasn't bad enough for the students.

_The little weasel_, groused Xander.

"I didn't read anything about…Oh," said Willow, sliding off Oz's lap and onto her own seat.

"These public displays of affection are not acceptable in my school," berated Snyder. Xander was suddenly struck with the oddest notion that Snyder and that detestable Ferengi bartender Quark on Deep Space Nine rather looked alike. "This isn't an orgy, people. It's a classroom."

"Yeah! Where they teach lunch," said Buffy wryly.

Snyder turned his weasel glare at her. "Just give me a reason to kick you out, Summers. Just give me a reason." And walked off to dose the rest of the school with his vitriolic presence.

"How about because you're a tiny, impotent Nazi with a bug up his butt the size of an emu?" mumbled Cordelia to Snyder's retreating form.

"Sums it up," said Buffy thoughtfully.

"Do you wanna come to my house tonight and study too?" asked Willow, smiling at Cordelia's description.

"Maybe, Xander and I do have to patrol."

"Again?" asked Willow in astonishment. "Do you really expect Angel to turn up tonight? And why Xander too?"

"No I don't expect him to. But that's usually when he does and Xander is coming with just in case Angel tries to overwhelm me with numbers…oh and I need to revise, which he can do from memory…no need for books."

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Sunnydale High Library 

A significant event developed however before the school day could end. Buffy and Willow had called a meeting of all the Scoobies, even Dawn, T'Jen and Doc Howser were brought in on it, beaming themselves from DWX into a secluded corner between the stacks of books.

"Where's the fire?" asked Doc.

"Do you recognize this T'Jen?" asked Buffy holding a yellow floppy disk and a printout of paper.

The Vulcan got a distant look on her face, which promptly turned into the standard raised eyebrow expression of intrigue that Vulcans got. "Indeed, it is the modified Curse of the Soul that…my former incarnation was working on. I had believed the work lost."

"Willow and I found it in the crack between the bookshelf and desk in the Computer lab, it must have fallen there during the…" said Buffy, uncomfortably trailing off.

"Jenny Calender's death," said T'Jen. "I am Vulcan, I have no feelings to hurt. You may speak of it freely."

"So Angel essentially killed her…to prevent Jenny from sharing this," said Xander angrily, shaking his head, "that bloody Drusilla and her visions…if there's one vampire that needs to be turned to fertilizer, then it's that…_p'tagh_."

"But this is good though, right? I mean we can curse him again then?" said Cordelia uncertainly.

"Um…well…this certainly points the way," said Giles as he stared at the printout. "But the ritual itself requires a greater knowledge of the black arts than, I, I can claim."

"And I do not have the same skill that my previous incarnation had before to manipulate the quantum flux energy prevalent in this Universe," explained T'Jen.

"The what?" said Cordelia, looking at the Vulcan in askance.

"She means magic," said Xander with a sigh.

"Well, I've been going through Ms Calendar's files, and researching the black arts, for fun, or educational fun, and I may be able work this," said Willow nervously.

"You sure babe?" said Oz.

"Oz is right to be concerned, W-willow…channeling…such potent magicks through yourself, it could open a door you may not be able to close," said Giles with concern laced through his voice.

"I don't want you putting yourself in any danger, Will," said Buffy, pacing back and forth.

"And I don't want danger," said Willow, "big no to danger, but I may be the best person to do this."

"Whoa, whoa," said Doc Howser holding his hands up, "I know I've not been here long, but let me see if I get this straight. You wish to use magic to put a soul back into the body of Angelus…thereby making him put his white hat back on. Snap, just like that and then everyone's best friends again…"

"In a nutshell," said Oz shortly.

"Is that ethical?" said the Doc. "I mean, I've always been a faithful Christian and it's just that…do we have the right to pluck the soul of…umm…"

"Liam McKenna," provided Xander.

"Yes, Liam, thank you…out of the hereafter? And deliver him back to the tormented existence of a vampire with a soul."

That left everyone with some healthy food for thought and a pregnant pause ensued in the discussion.

"It was not Angel's fault that he became Angelus again," said Buffy softly.

"Yes," agreed Giles. "The blame lies mainly with the Gypsy for not informing Angel of that little clause in the Curse."

"The Gypsy did the original Curse on Angelus for vengeance," said T'Jen. "It halted a reign of terror and death by the vampire and saved countless lives throughout Europe. It was in its essence perhaps a dark deed, but the good it achieved was immeasurable."

"It boils down to this fact," said Xander. "Will the world be a better place with Angel in it? How many lives will he save and influence for the better?" He looked around at the faces of the Scoobies around him as they answered that question for themselves.

"Do we have consensus? Will we ask Willow to take this risk?" said Giles gravely. He met the gaze of each Scooby and they all eventually nodded in turn. "Very well, we have planning to do."

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**Sunnydale Park…that evening…**

"The atomic number of Sodium?"

"Umm…I know this…eleven," said Buffy triumphantly.

"Yes, what is the formal name of poopy gas?"

"Hydrogen Sulphide," she answered, her face going into mock disgust.

"Good, what does the acronym TNT stand for as it relates to organic chemistry?"

"Tri…um..nitrioustolulene?"

"Yes…" said Xander, but further quizzing was halted when he heard a snap of a branch nearby. Both Android and Slayer whirled in the direction of the sound, both berating themselves for focusing too much on their chemistry final than paying attention to their surroundings. Another sound came from another pair of bushes behind them.

"Xander?" whispered Buffy

"Relax, we're being tested," he replied.

A fist came out of the night, heading straight for Buffy's head and the Slayer whirled and caught it, but stayed any retaliatory strike when she saw whom the fist belonged to. Kendra, the exotic looking Caribbean Slayer, dressed as sexily as ever with a bare midriff smirked at Buffy and Xander.

"You know polite people call before they jump out of the bushes and attack you," said Buffy wryly.

"Just wanted ter test ya reflexes," she replied in her distinct accent.

"How about testing my face punching? Cause I think you'll find it's improved."

"Now, now, girls, play nice," lectured Xander with a grin. "It's good to see you again, Kendra."

"Same ter ye, Xander," nodded the girl with a slightly shy smile; which was a major improvement from her previous manner in addressing him.

"Don't think I'm not glad to see you," said Buffy smiling, "but why are you here?" Kendra started to answer but was interrupted. "Oh, wait, no, let me guess. Your watcher informed you _dat a very dark power is about ter rise in Sunnydale_."

"Dat's about it," nodded Kendra.

"Great, so do you have any idea what this dark power is?"

"I do."

"Well, at least you have one up on your previous visit," said Buffy.

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Sunnydale High, Library 

Giles intensely read through the file that Kendra had brought with her, whilst the Slayer in question, Buffy, Xander and Willow sat patiently on the table waiting for the Watcher to deliver the 411 on the latest threat to emerge. It struck Xander as particularly ominous that it would happen just as they had resolved to go forward with performing the Curse on Angelus; and already he had a gut instinct that this new threat and the Curse would somehow go hand in hand with each other.

"A couple of days ago," said Giles abruptly, closing the file. "I was called in to the Sunnydale Natural History Museum to examine a large artifact dug out of the outskirts of the town. I didn't know what it was at first, and the runes and inscriptions on it suggested that something was inside. The information in this file provided by Watcher Zabuto corroborates with what I've researched so far on it since then."

"And the artifact actually is?" prompted Xander.

"It's a tomb," said Giles, polishing his glasses, "a tomb containing a petrified demon by the name of Acathla."

"Oh no," groaned Xander, his shoulders slumping, "it just had to be an apocalypse level demon, didn't it."

"Quite," said the Watcher wryly.

"What's so apocalypsy about this one?" asked Willow with wide eyes.

"Acathla," said Giles, "is classified as such, because his one and only power, is to create a vortex that will swallow the Earth and all its inhabitants into a 'hell' dimension."

"Eep," said Willow faintly, her face draining of color.

"Those A-level demons really go all out don't they," said Buffy grimly.

"Yes, fortunately for us, Acathla was stopped when a 'virtuous knight' stabbed the demon through the heart just before it could complete the act when it first tried it. As a result Acathla turned to stone," explained Giles, he glanced at his watch. "I should get on the phone to the museum, their research lab should still be open. We'll arrange for another visit, remove the artifact and destroy it."

Giles hurried into his office.

"It's not gonna be that easy," said Buffy, shaking her head. "It never is."

This proved prophetic when Giles returned a minute later.

"The artifact in question is missing, and the curator has been murdered, vampires," said Giles shortly, leaning on the table.

"So Angelus has it by now," said Xander shaking his head. "Well this certainly adds incentive to try the Curse."

"Ye cannot only rely on that," disagreed Kendra, "Spike or Drusilla could still unleash Acathla."

"Kendra makes a good point," nodded Giles. "The casting of the Curse must be coordinated with a conventional attack on the Scourge of Europe. Which is a problem since we don't know where they've based themselves from since we burned down their factory lair."

"But what if we can't find them in time, Giles," argued Buffy. "Then our only hope is the Curse, and that Angel somehow manages to get word to us."

"I _don't _wanna be our only hope!" said Willow, taken aback. "Uh, I crumble under pressure! Let's have another hope."

"We have," assured Kendra, and reached into her bag on the floor and pulled out a gleaming silver longsword that glittered with a pure light. "Blessed by the knight who first slew the demon. If, all else fails, this might stop it, I think."

"May I?" asked Giles, holding his hand out to the sword. Kendra nodded and handed it over. Giles twirled it experimentally, hesitating slightly to become familiar with its weight and nodded in approval. "Thank you, well let's hope all else doesn't fail." He glanced to Xander significantly and then turned to Willow. "How close are you figuring out the ritual of the curse?"

The Wiccan looked into her pack thoughtfully and declared, "I need about a day, maybe less, and an Orb of Thesulah? Whatever that is."

"Spirit vault for rituals of the undead," explained Giles, handing the sword back to Kendra. "I've got one for you…ummm, I,I,I've been using it as a paperweight." He stammered in embarrassment and headed into his office to retrieve it.

"This means I can't help you study for tomorrow's final," said Willow with a 'sorry' expression to Buffy.

"No biggy, Xander's keeping me up to speed," said Buffy with a grin.

"Her knowledge is sufficient for the test, but could use further refinement," channeling his inner-Data in his manner.

"Of course, if we go to hell by then, I won't have to take them," said Buffy mock cheerfully which changed to worry. "Or maybe I'll be taking them forever."

Giles returned and handed the earth colored orb to Willow. "Angelus has a ritual of his own to perform before he can remove the sword from the demon and awaken Acathla. With any luck, it should take some time."

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The day of the semester finals was explosive in more ways than one. Xander had 'awoken' in his apartment to news on the radio clock that the worst domestic terrorist incident since the McVeigh bombing had occurred in Dallas, Texas. An entire twenty floor building had been bombed into a ruin and numerous surrounding buildings were damaged. Switching on the cable TV he watched the visual coverage with interest.

Just by looking at a wide angled shot of the building, he analyzed that the bomb had been on the ground floor, and from the blast debris pattern…probably the liquid base explosive known as Astrolite was used.

Amazingly, only three people had been killed, as an FBI taskforce had been in the adjoining Federal building; ironically searching it for a bomb threat that had been called in there. The FBI had gotten wise to the deception of the bomber somehow and evacuated the building before it exploded. No explanation was given why the three people had been missed in the evac.

The news of the bombing was drowned out of the minds of the students with their finals looming that day. Xander and the rest of the school going Scoobies would however, get another display of pyrotechnics when in the middle of their chemistry exam, a woman walked in wearing a full hooded robe. So intent were they on their exams that nobody noticed until she began to speak and remove her hood.

"Tonight…sundown…at the graveyard," said the woman, whose face morphed into that of a vampire's gameface. Everyone looked up and froze in shock at the sight.

"Excuse me…" said the presiding Teacher in shock at the sight. The vampire was now exposed to sunlight and began to smoke and an acrid stench filled the air.

"You will come to him," said the vamp, looking directly at Buffy. "You will come to him or more will die." The vampire ignited in flames and abruptly exploded into ashes. Xander was stunned that any vamp would consent to be turned into nothing more than a one-way message for Buffy. She was also looking stunned.

The students screamed as the vampire met its final end, jumped out of their chairs and began to run out of the room. Except for the Scoobies, who remained seated and just stared at the space the vamp had occupied in astonishment.

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Sunnydale High Library 

Cordelia and Willow were deep into the books, researching the elements for the ritual of the Curse, whilst Giles, Buffy, Kendra and Xander were on the mezzanine.

"She said more would die, I have to go," said Buffy intently.

"Hastening into battle now before we are ready is not a good idea," objected Xander. "And this acme-combustion-o-gram from Angelus is a sure invitation for you to walk into a trap."

"Xander makes a good point, Buffy," said Giles, rubbing the bridge of his nose wearily.

"We must also ask…why? Why now?" said Xander, "when he has Acathla already."

"We so don't have time to go into twenty questions," said Buffy, shaking her head. "It's only half an hour till sundown."

"Then if you are so determined to do this then let's at least call for some reinforcements, T'Jen can be here in minutes with everything we need."

"This is my fight, Xander," objected Buffy stubbornly.

"I was not thinking of her or me going with you," he retorted. "It's to protect us as we perform the Curse, or are you all forgetting that Drusilla can see visions of anything that threatens her or those closest to her."

"Blast," cursed Giles, "of course. I knew I was forgetting something in this furor of excitement."

"Den I will stay and assist here," nodded Kendra.

"And look at it this way," said Buffy, walking down to Willow, "as long as Angelus is fighting me. He can't do his end-of-the-world ritual thingy, and that's a good. Will, what do you think?"

"I just wanna cross check…" said Willow looking over her notes.

"If this is gonna work it has to work now," said Buffy firmly.

"Okay, then I need half an hour once we're all set up," replied the Wiccan.

"Which means you just have to hold Angelus off, don't let him close on you," advised Giles. "If the Curse succeeds you should see a difference immediately."

"Why don't you just wait here to find out if it worked, see if he phones you?" said Cordelia reasonably. And amazingly Xander found himself agreeing with her for once.

"I can't risk him killing any more people, I better go," replied Buffy, starting to go to the door.

"Watch your back," said Xander, looking troubled.

"I will," she replied.

"Here…" called Kendra, the Caribbean Slayer picked up a roughly made, twisted but sharp wooden stake from the table and handed it over to Buffy.

"In case de Curse does not succeed," said Kendra earnestly, "dis is my lucky stake. I have killed many vampires with it. I call it 'Mr Pointy'."

"You named your stake?" said Buffy in amusement.

"Yes," said Kendra, somewhat embarrassed.

"Remind me to get you a stuffed animal."

With that Buffy left the library.

"Ok," said Xander rubbing his hands together. "Let's get this place ready."

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Xander twirled his new dual weapons in his hands experimentally from his position facing the stacks. They were both modified Klingon _Mek'leth_'s with a wooden stake attached to the bottom of the bladed handle. T'Jen had beamed over (out of Kendra's sight) carrying a heavy case full of these weapons and other gadgets he had specified to bring over.

Kendra stood at the front doors of the library also with Mek'leths in her hands and was a picture of alertness, whilst T'Jen stood stoically towards the other side facing Giles office; looking damn hot in that blue bodysuit contrasting with the ferocious looking Mek'leths in her hands.

Willow was sitting cross-legged on a table moved to the center of the library and before her was the Orb of Thesulah; around both a sacred circle was inscribed, which was further surrounded by perfectly placed candles, bones and rune stones. The Wicca was frowning in concentration before she threw another handful of rune stones to land within the circle. She looked at them for a moment to consult the reading they gave and nodded to Giles who standing just off the table a book in his hands.

"Quod perditum est, invenietur."

Cordelia on the other side of the table swirled incense into the air on cue.

"Not dead nor of the living. Spirits of the interregnum I call…" chanted Willow.

Xander raised a fist to T'Jen and Kendra. It was his signal to warn them of vampires inbound. Both women nodded and fell into ready stances, with Xander mirroring them, their Mek'leths gleaming eerily in the darkened library.

"Let him know the pain of humanity, gods. Reach your wizened hands to me. Give me the sword…" chanted Willow her breathing becoming faster, as magic began to visibly be channeled around her and within the sacred circle.

The first vampire burst out of the stacks to attack Xander, but an almost casual swipe from his left hand Mek'leth at neck height caused it to explode into ashes.

In the meantime, the main doors had flown open and two vampires began to attack Kendra, whilst T'Jen had to also contend with another two vamps that had burst in through Giles' office window. Another three vampires burst through the stacks to surround Xander and the world dissolved into a blur as he dodged, slashed and stabbed. These vamps were armed however with a variety of weapons, steel pipes and swords.

Yet amazingly the ritual continued. The first vampire to break through the three defenders lines to try and attack the chanting Willow, Giles and Cordelia found out the hard way that you didn't run into or touch a level 15 force field if you wanted to walk away with your nerve endings in tact. Among the gadgets T'Jen had brought was also a localized force field emitter powered by a micro-fusion reactor.

The vampire was flung off its feet and crashed through the wooden railing of the mezzanine. Xander blocked the swing of a pipe with his left weapon and with a single upwards swipe disembowled the vamp wielding it…the damage was simply too much for the body and it exploded into ashes. He brought the same weapon down on another vamp, who blocked the Mek'leth with a sword, and slashed at another vamp with his left to decapitate it. Using the eviscerating hook on the weapon he pulled the sword from the vamp's grip and twirled in a pirouette that caught it in the neck and chopped the limb off another rushing vampire.

Two quick slashes dispatched it and Xander was free to consider the battle before him.

T'Jen was locked in a battle with another two vampires, the ashes around her feet showed that her previous opponents weren't up to her skill, and her skill was extremely great. T'Pol had once worked for the Ministry of Security on Vulcan and she had been trained to perfection by the best Vulcan had; added to her strength and reflexes which was perhaps slightly greater than a vamp's. He watched with admiration as with clean economical strokes and evasions she staked one with the reverse of her Mek'leth and used the exploding ash from it to blindside her other opponent with a decapitating stroke.

Kendra was in fine form and seemed to delight in the Mek'leth's using them to great effect, as the pile of dust around her also proved. The seemingly last vampire to attack was dusted by Kendra using both weapons to act like a scissor on the neck of it.

Xander held up one finger and gestured to the main doors leading out into the hallway. Kendra nodded and burst into a run to go through them and take off after the last remaining vampire, who had for some reason lingered outside.

He and T'Jen converged to see the progress of the ritual.

By now Willow was alight with power and still continued to chant. Giles was sweating and had a strained look on his face whilst Cordelia looked frozen with fear for some reason. It was as Xander focused through the glow to Willow's face that he realized something was wrong…the Wiccan's face was strained and twisting with pain. And yet the power of magic in the air continued to build.

"It's too much for her Giles! Stop! STOP! Switch off the force field, get out of there! Cordelia grab the reactor!" snapped Xander.

With an electric snap the force field fell. Cordelia grabbed the device no bigger than a suitcase and ran for it. Giles ran over.

"Willow can't stop! There's too much power contained within! I knew she was overestimating herself, blast it!" said the Watcher over the building noise.

"The ritual must be stopped!" shouted T'Jen. "If it continues the energies will build to a level high enough to intersect with the dimensional rift below us, perhaps causing a tear into this space-time continuum."

"There's only one thing to be done then!" said Giles. "I will disrupt the sacred circle, the magical energies will dissipate."

"You could die!" snapped Xander.

"I let Willow do this against my better judgment, it's my responsibility, now GO!"

His words were punctuated when the floor began to shake. Xander and T'Jen nodded and broke into a run and burst through the library doors. They stopped in their tracks not a few moments later as down the hall was a sobbing Cordelia, kneeling next to a sprawled Kendra. The cheerleader was holding both hands around the neck of the fallen Slayer, trying to stem the blood loss from where the Caribbean Slayer's throat had been cut.

"It was Drusilla," sobbed the teen queen.

"Xander to Dawn, medical emergency, area beam Cordelia and Kendra directly to Sickbay!" he said, slapping his communicator.

"_It'll be tricky, there's a massive dimensional disturbance near you_."

"Just do it!"

The air in front of them was abruptly filled with cascading water blue sparkles, which enveloped Cordelia and Kendra, and both vanished.

"We must hurry!" said T'Jen and the world gave another lurch under their feet as they sprinted down the hall towards the emergency exit.

They both burst into the cool night air and didn't glance back until they were a good distance from the school. A shaft of light was stabbing from it up into the sky and illuminating the area with an otherworldly glow. It would be the supreme of ironies for the world to end because they were trying to save it.

But thankfully, Giles seemingly succeeded because the shaft of light condensed to point abruptly and vanished back down into school. T'Jen brought out a Tricorder and glanced at the readings.

"The hellmouth has been sealed again," she reported.

"Then let's get back in there," said Xander, but was stopped by T'Jen grabbing a hold of his arm. He was about to demand why, when he heard it, sirens…police and ambulance. In the distance they could see the blue and red flashing as the cars sped towards the High School. "Since when do the cops do anything in this town but turn a blind eye?"

"I am unable to speculate," said T'Jen evenly. "But I suggest we vacate the area immediately."

Two waterfall cascades of energy swept them away a few moments later.

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**DWX Sickbay**.

Early in the morning a visibly tired Doc Howser came out of the Surgical bay with a guarded look to his face and surveyed his waiting colleagues.

"She'll live," said the Doc shortly. "Her recovery will be rough road however, but if the Slayer healing is everything it's cropped up to be, then she should make it."

Xander, Dawn and Cordelia breathed a collective sigh of relief whilst T'Jen nodded.

"However, you should all know that Kendra flatlined for fifty seconds during surgery before I could revive her again," reported the Doc significantly.

"Oh boy," breathed Xander, "there's gonna be a third Slayer now."

"If I understood the mechanics of it, then that is highly likely," agreed the Doc. "Do we have any word on Willow, Giles and Buffy?"

"I spoke to Buffy over the com," reported Dawn. "She returned as fast as she could once she realized the trap wasn't for her but for the others. But she returned to the scene at the worst possible moment. The police saw her standing over Willow's unconscious body, the library wrecked around them, and drew the completely wrong conclusion and tried to arrest her with Snyder of all people leading them."

"What on earth is that little Nazi doing ordering the police about?" snapped Cordelia in angrily.

"She didn't see Giles?" asked Xander in alarm.

"No," said Dawn shaking her head, "Willow was the only one left in the library."

"Speaking of which, where is Willow?" asked the Doc.

"Taken to Sunnydale General Hospital, there's still no report in their computer system on her condition, but she was reported as stable by the ambulance taking her there," said Dawn.

"Doc, will Kendra be fine without you for a while?" asked Xander.

"I need to transfer her first to a Biobed, and Dawn can sufficiently keep her under observation," said Doc Howser.

"Good, do that and grab a Medkit, you're with me," said Xander and turned to Dawn. "Where is Buffy now?"

"On the run, there's an APB out on her," said the Borg hybrid worriedly.

"And Giles?"

"I tried to beam him back after getting word from Buffy," she said, shaking her head, "all I got back were his various combadges. Whoever got him probably stripped him completely to divest him of any possible weapon or device."

"Meaning that's he was most likely captured after the ritual failed but before Buffy could get back," mused Xander. "But by who?"

"Drusilla was still at large in the area after we left," reasoned T'Jen.

"That bitch is seriously starting to get on my nerves," snarked Xander angrily. "Let's get going."

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Sunnydale General Hospital 

Doc Howser hovered the scanner of his Medical Tricorder over Willow's unconscious form, where she was snuggly tucked into the sheets of a hospital bed. They were on the third floor and she had seemingly rated a private room. Xander stood by the door to keep an eye out for any nurses and doctors that looked to be coming in so Doc Howser could do his thing without being disturbed.

"Well," said the Doc, running a hand through his short dark blonde hair wearily. "I can only confirm the diagnosis of her attending Doctor and even add to it. She's in a coma and her neural-electrical potentials are very low at the moment."

"I'm not surprised," said Xander, "from the amount of energy she channeled through herself."

"Yes, her brain went into a coma to protect her higher brain functions from it, much like a circuit breaker," theorized Doc Howser.

"Can you use a Cortical stimulator?"

"I could, but there is still some residual quantum flux present in her nerves, until it dissipates it would be dangerous to further excite her nervous system back into operation."

"Do what you can, her parents are on their way from Phoenix and Oz should be here soon to keep a vigil," said Xander, turning around to leave.

"Where are you going?" asked Doc in askance.

"Now I have to explain to Mrs Summers why one of her daughters is a fugitive," said Xander grimly.

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Casa Summers 

Xander sat next to Mrs Summers on the living room sofa scowling at the so-called 'Detective' Stein; who looked like he couldn't detect an elephant in crowded theater. Two uniformed police officers were doing a thorough search…Xander was doubly glad that they had moved Dawn's regeneration alcove out of the house a few weeks ago because there was no way that it could left so relatively unsecured in the basement of the house.

Mrs Summers on the other hand was directing such a scorching stare at the Detective that by all rights should've immolated him on the spot.

"That's impossible," snapped Mrs S. "My daughter would never attack Willow Rosenberg nor wreck the school library in the process."

"She was caught red handed, Mrs Summers," said Detective Stein in retaliation, "she then proceeded to assault an officer and escaped custody."

Mrs S looked ready to launch into a verbal tirade on the capabilities and relative intelligence of Sunnydale's finest and where they could stick their charges; but Xander knew it would not solve anything. He placed a hand on her arm to still her.

"Detective Stein, we have no idea of Buffy's current whereabouts," said Xander reasonably. "I am friends with Buffy and Willow both, and she would never lay a finger on her friend, except to render aid."

"We know what we saw, Mr Harris," said Stein dismissively. "And even if she is innocent of assault on Ms Rosenberg, she still attacked a police officer and refused to submit to arrest." He turned to Mrs S. "It doesn't help that your daughter has a history of violence."

"The charges in LA were never proven," retorted Mrs S.

"But they are on her record," said Detective Stein, and handed her a card. "This has my number on it. Call us if she arrives here. It would be best for her to simply come in quietly."

He nodded at the other officers and they left. When they were sure they were well down the street in their cars and gone, Mrs S whirled on Xander.

"What on earth happened?"

He began a narration of events since the chemistry finals and explained everything.

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It was well into the evening and the word from Doc Howser over the Com was that Willow had regained consciousness. Oz and Cordelia and a disguised T'Jen were going to stay with her whilst the Doc was returning to DWX to monitor Kendra's condition.

Xander had remained at Casa Summers after receiving word from Buffy that she would eventually be there.

Her arrival was heralded by the sound of fighting right outside the front door. Mrs S raised her own Phaser and Xander rushed out the front door, Mek'leth's up and gleaming. Only to stop in astonishment as Buffy and Spike battled another vampire in tandem.

Spike gave a series of punches to the vampire's face and with a final devastating hit sent the ugly vamp spinning around and staggering away. Allowing Buffy to easily thrust a stake into its chest, where it exploded into ash.

"One of Angel's boys," said Spike to Buffy.

"Yeah, probably watching me or you," said the Slayer.

"Yeah, he won't get a chance to tattle on us now," said the Master vamp in his cockney accent.

Xander cleared his throat loudly. "Am I missing something here or aren't we mortal enemies?" gesturing with the Mek'leth's to Spike and Buffy.

"Temporary truce, Android," said Spike holding his hands up, looking slightly worried at the sight of the weapons specifically designed to kill vampires. "I like living in this dimension, and have no desire to see _everything_ get destroyed."

"And he wants to get Drusilla away from Angel," said Buffy looking at Spike in disgust.

Xander considered this and eventually lowered his weapons and relaxed his stance. "Let's get inside then, we don't want another vamp spotting us."

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'_I'm okay Buffy, really. I mean, I don't feel good, but I'm awake and I know my name, I know who's President and how many fingers, so Doc Howser and the other ones at this hospital doesn't think my brain got mushed at all.' _Came Willow's voice over the combadge necklace from Buffy.

"Thank God," said Buffy relieved, she, Mrs S, Spike and Xander were all uncomfortably sitting in the living room. "So sorry I can't be there."

"_I know. I'm sorry I didn't get to cure Angel. I just totally underestimated the power involved, and being on top of the hellmouth didn't help any.'_

"Don't be sorry. It just wasn't meant to be," said Buffy sadly. Spike made a face at her, and Xander waved his Mek'leth menacingly, wordlessly telling him to behave. "I know I'm never got him back to the way he was. It just makes it easier."

"_I guess. Any luck finding Giles?_"

"Yep, I got a lucky break," she said, staring at Spike wryly.

"_What?"_

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," said Buffy assuredly. "Anyway, Xander and I know where they are now. They've holed up in that funky looking mansion on Crawford Street just outside of town…we're going to hit it come daybreak."

"_Well, good luck. Um…do you think that Giles is still alive?_"

"Angelus has been having his own problems with the ritual to activate Acathla, that's why he staged the attack…it was all to get Giles," said Xander grimly.

"_Ok, I understand, good luck. Willow out._"

"All right, talk," said Buffy coldly, addressing Spike. "What's the deal?"

"Simple," said Spike with a shrug, "you and Android boy let me and Dru skip town, I'll help you kill Angel."

"Forget about Drusilla," said Buffy shaking her head, "she doesn't walk."

"There's no deal without Dru," argued Spike.

"She damn near killed Kendra," retorted Buffy.

"'Near' being the operative word," said the bleach blonde vampire. "Look. This deal works one way. Full stop. Me and Dru for Angel. At to further sweeten the pie, I'll take her out of the country. You'll never hear from us again, I bloody well hope. No way I'm sticking around here with you lot getting more and more Trek gadgets."

"Fine," conceded Buffy. "Get back to the mansion and make sure Giles is all right and be ready to back me up when I make my move." Spike nodded shortly and got up and made for the door, but was stopped by Buffy's voice. "If Giles dies…she dies."

Spike nodded again and walked out of the house and disappeared into the night.

"Honey," said Mrs S, "before you and Xander go, we have to talk about what to do about the police."

"What is there to do," said Buffy dismally. "I had to hit a cop to get away, I couldn't afford to get caught…not with Acathla out there waiting to suck the whole world into hell. There's no dodging that."

"There could be a way," said Xander thoughtfully. "Now that Willow is conscious she can refute the assault charges. Hitting the cop, well, I can ask Dawn to work with the Doc and we can re-sequence the memory engrams of the cops in question, Snyder too…with the Holodeck soon online we can stage an 'alien' abduction. I can transport into the file room of the police station, take the charge file too, and erase it from their computer system."

Mrs S gaped at Xander. "Xander, do you know how many laws you are talking about breaking?"

"Do you want your daughter in your house and a free woman or not?" said Xander with a frown.

"Of course, but…"

"It's not as if we'll make a habit of this," said Xander assuredly. "In fact, I'm more curious how the cops and Snyder even knew to be there…they arrived too soon for it to have been reported by nearby witnesses."

"Okay," said Mrs S. with a sigh. "Be careful, both of you. And you better not get killed Ms Summers," she said sternly to Buffy, giving her a tight hug. "Or I will find someone to resurrect you so I can ground you for life."

"Mom!" cried Buffy in embarrassment.

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However, before they could assault Angelus' mansion, they needed to make two stops along the way. First, Buffy had to get the Blessed Sword that was still in the bag left by Kendra at the library. Despite the fact that they could beam anywhere they pleased with a call to Dawn over the Com, it was difficult to find safe places to appear without being observed. So they made use of Giles' Aston for the trip.

Buffy came back out of the school running; Xander put the car in gear and floored the accelerator. He screeched to a stop and leaned open the door for her to jump in, carrying the gleaming silver blade. The instant she was secure he pulled away with a screech and began driving to their next destination…for some reason she needed to go to Giles apartment. Her only explanation was that there was info there they could use.

"I was just expelled," she said, eyeing the darkened streets passing at high speed through the windows.

"Snyder was still there?" said Xander in astonishment, his hands tightening on the steering wheel.

"Yeah, and he obviously knows nothing about Slayer hearing," said Buffy contemptuously. "He called the Mayor for some reason with news of it, sounding very happy."

"An investigation for another day I suppose," said Xander, turning the Aston into a corner and finally pulling into the driveway of Giles' flat complex.

They entered Casa Giles and Xander immediately noticed that someone other than Giles had made themselves at home here. Someone was rummaging around in the fridge. The figure straightened and was revealed to be an average looking guy of medium height with a shifty look to his face wearing a ridiculous hat and dressing like he had just come out of the seventies.

He came up clutching a beer and said idly, "You know raiding an Englishman's fridge is like dating a nun. You're never gonna get the good stuff." He raised the beer and took a swig only to spit it out once his eyes saw Xander.

"Oh man," said the guy, with wide eyes and rushed over. Xander eyed Buffy curiously and she nodded in encouragement. "It's an honor to meet_ you_." And the guy promptly proceeded to shake his hand rather vigorously.

"Whistler this is Xander, Xander this is Whistler…he's a Balance Demon," explained Buffy, as Xander rescued his own hand.

"Oh, I've read about you guys," said Xander curiously, studying the 'man'. "Very few of you out there, but a little too hands off for my taste."

"It's our forte, we encourage, advise, but stay out of the line of fire," said Whistler with a shrug and another swig of the beer.

"Anyway, you were saying something about using the sword when I left?" asked Buffy pointedly.

"Angel is the key," said Whistler a nod. "His blood will reactivate Acathla. The thing opens his big mouth, creates a vortex. Then only Angel's blood will close it. One blow will send 'em both back to hell. But I strongly suggest you get there before that happens, cause the faster you kill Angel, the easier its gonna be on you."

"Don't worry about me," said Buffy, "let's go Xander."

"It's all on the line here, kid."

"I can deal," said Buffy.

"With him watching your back, I've no doubt of that," said Whistler nodding at Xander.

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Xander and Buffy stood on a hillside overlooking Crawford Street and the mansion where Angelus and company was holed up in dominated the view. It was a pretty impressive place, he really hoped that it remained standing after this. Buffy clutched the Blessed Sword and was idly and expertly twirling it about. Xander checked his Mek'leth's and was satisfied that they were still razor sharp.

"Nice weapons, mind giving me a set when this is over?" asked Buffy.

"Not at all," said Xander, admiring the cool early morning view from the hill. "It's almost dawn."

"Then let's go."

They rushed down the hill and split up to implement their mutually decided upon plan. Xander would first seek out Giles and get a combadge to him, allowing the Watcher to be beamed out, whilst Buffy would immediately go and confront Angelus…where hopefully Spike would turn coat and help them to stop Acathla.

Xander walked along the exterior of the mansion, looking for a side door or something he could burst in through. Buffy had burst through the front doors not looking to waste time. He found a door that led directly into a large kitchen.

Inside which were two vamps busy arguing over who was gonna drink the last bit of blood from a the body of a guy they had just killed. So intent were they on their argument that they didn't notice him at first and by the time they did it was too late, he gave two neck high slashes and they were dust on the floor. He wished he had time to at least close the dead guy's eyes but there were bigger fish to fry.

He emerged from the kitchen into a hallway. A suggestion from Data made him groan in annoyance.

"Fine, fine," he said and activated his internal sensor. He was instantly aware of everything and it allowed him to get a bead on Giles on account of him being the only proper life sign in the building besides Buffy.

Xander's progress was unimpeded further as it seemed that Angelus had rather used up quite a few of his minions attacking Scooby central. However, it meant that those minions left would be the ones that were the most powerful.

He pushed aside a curtain covering the doorway to a room and found Giles inside; who was looking as if he had certainly seen better days. He had been clearly tortured by Angelus with numerous contusions all over and was tied to a chair.

"Giles!" said Xander.

The Watcher weakly raised his head and stared dazedly at him. Xander rushed forward and began to untie the ropes with slashes from his Mek'leth's.

"Xander?" said Giles blearily.

"Yes, its me Giles," he answered reassuringly, and pulled out a combadge that was shaped in the classic Delta form of the early Starfleet and pinned it to Giles's chest.

"You're not real," said Giles.

"Sure, I'm real!" objected Xander.

"It's a trick. They get inside my head, and make me see things I want."

"The transporter beam about to sweep you out of here will convince you otherwise," said Xander shaking his head.

"Xander to Dawn, lock onto the signal in front me and get Giles out of here."

"_Got it Xan._"

The blue waterfall of energy appeared and the Watcher vanished.

"_By the way, I was told by T'Jen to tell you, that Willow is attempting the Curse again right now from her hospital bed_."

"You're kidding me?"

"_I wish I was, but Willow was making liberal use of the 'Resolve face',"_ said Dawn wryly.

"There's no time for this, and I can't afford to tell Buffy this either, not when she's fighting Angelus for her life."

"_Yeah, her heart will get in the way_," said Dawn sadly.

"I'll see you soon. Xander out."

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Xander burst into the main room where he had judged the fight to be taking place. And took in the scene with a single glance; on one side was the petrified form of Acathla (damn, talk about ugly), lying in front of it unconscious was Angelus, Spike and Drusilla was battling each other and going all out (clearly she didn't approve of Spike turning his coat), whilst Buffy was battling a rather skilled looking big vampire, with her sword sheathed in a loop on her belt.

It was with alarm that Xander saw Angelus was coming to. He raised his weapons and charged for the vampire Buffy was fighting.

"Buffy! Get Angelus!" he shouted and intercepted the attack of the vampire and using the bladed handles to stab him multiple times; quickly going for the coup de grace by reversing his Mek'leth and staking the disorientated vampire with it.

Buffy whirled and saw that Xander had warned her about; she sprinted towards Angelus who was slowly struggling to his feet. His eyes widened when he saw Buffy boring down on him and he whirled to take the last few steps to Acathla and grab the hilt of the sword sprouting from the demon's heart.

However, Buffy got there in time. She delivered a scissors kick through the legs of Angelus causing him to fall to the ground…the Master vampire's hand had missed grabbing the hilt of the sword by inches.

From her prone position on the floor Buffy lashed out twice with kicks directly to Angelus' face, and with a deft genuflect of her body was back on her feet with the Blessed Sword in her hand and looming over the vampire…ready to stab it in his heart.

"Doesn't seem fair you know," winced Angelus from the floor. "You're good guys, aint you s'pose to give me a fair fight?"

"Like the one you gave Jenny and all of the other people you've killed?" grated Buffy angrily.

"He's stalling Buffy!" shouted Xander, "remember, his blood is the KEY!"

Buffy frowned thoughtfully and the Blessed Sword sang through the air towards its mark…

"Arrgghh!" screamed Angelus in pain.

"NO!" shouted Drusilla, which gave Spike the upper hand in their personal battle, giving her a swift one-two combination and roundhouse kick that twirled her to the floor. He swooped down on her and delivered a devastating kick to her head, which promptly knocked her out. He looked up at Buffy as he threw his paramour over his shoulder.

Buffy pulled the sword out of Angelus' shoulder…from here Xander could see a liberal amount of the vampire's blood coating the blade…and without further pause threw the Blessed Sword towards Acathla where it landed true…burying itself through the petrified demon's forehead.

Xander smirked in triumph as a great groaning began to fill the air and Acathla began to glow an eerie white that was near blinding in its intensity. Buffy had finished what the Virtuous Knight had started all those centuries ago. The magic in the act of a Slayer stabbing the demon with blood from a demon coating the sword she used was in fact a ritual in itself.

A ritual of banishment and destruction.

'_Thanks for finding that, Data,_' grinned Xander inwardly, shielding his eyes from the glare.

'_You're welcome, sorry it took a while, the occult database is getting rather large,_' replied Data.

There was sudden flash and a shockwave of energy knocked everyone off their feet. Xander felt himself crash against the far wall…severely denting and breaking the brick.

When his vision cleared and his internal diagnostic showed that he had only suffered superficial damage to the skin of his back, he looked up and saw that all that was left of Acathla was a shadowy scorch on the floor where it had stood, and amazingly enough the two swords were still intact and lying haphazardly on the floor.

And just at that moment everyone in the room came out of their funk. Buffy scrambled to her feet with purpose and made to grab for the Blessed Sword; Angelus had seemingly recovered enough to spin on the floor and trip her.

Buffy fell forward nevertheless and grabbed the hilt of her sword, whilst Angelus grabbed the other. Both surged to their feet and faced each other in ready stances.

"How's this for fair?" sniped Buffy.

"You're gonna pay for that!" snarled Angelus absolutely livid, pointing to where Acathla had been. "I'd been working up to using a chainsaw on your Watcher…perhaps I can finish it off with you."

"Please," said Buffy wryly, "you so don't have that _Friday the 13__th_ vibe at all."

With that she thrust her sword at him, he parried and retaliated with a thrust of his own, which she also parried skillfully. They continued to clash blades for seven distinct rounds of attack and offense, when Buffy finally ducked a wide arcing swing that allowed for a brief opening in Angelus' defense but he recovered quickly enough to stop her attack aiming to gouge his chest.

Angelus tried another arcing swing from above, but Buffy was again equal to it in the reflexes department, and merely sidestepped it, bringing her own blade crashing down on his blade, allowing an opening for her to backfist him in the face.

Angelus lurched away but quickly returned to fighting form and they faced each other again with blades held in ready stances. Buffy took the initiative and again they began to trade blows, matching each other in strike for strike.

Angelus tried another devastating swing from above, Buffy evaded it again, only this time she looked for some high ground; and jumped on a low table and swung at him in a decapitating strike. He managed to block it and swung at her legs, she nimbly jumped over the deadly blade and landed back on the floor. He tried to for her legs again, but she blocked it in time.

Again they traded several blows of offense and counters, and Angelus tried a wide powerful swing again; only this time he managed to get somewhat under Buffy's guard and superficially cut her arm. He tried to take advantage and came at her with his sword held high, but in a move straight from Vulcan martial arts; she dodged and rolled out of the way in the same flowing movement…causing Angelus's heavy overhead swing to crash into the table, destroying a bowl that was on it.

Buffy used this opening to sweep Angelus' feet out from under him, but he managed to stop her advance with a kick to her own legs from the floor. He managed to get to a kneeling position and was forced to defend from it when Buffy closed the distance again. He swung again with his blade to attempt a decapitating strike on her this time, but Buffy was waiting for it, and managed a parry so successfully that it knocked his sword into the table and pinned it there. It was a mistake though and allowed Angelus to get a backhand punch off into her face.

She spun away with the momentum, whilst Angelus pulled his sword away and attacked again. She blocked it with her sword in her right hand only, allowing her a gap to kick him in the gut; making the vampire double over. Xander awed over her next move, which was a jumping somersault right over Angelus, which left her more room to work with.

The vampire didn't give her a moment's breather though and surged in with more swings of attack, which she parried in matching counterstrokes each time. He tried to disarm her next by kicking for her sword arm, which caused her to stumble a bit.

Xander's attention was taken away from the impressive battle as Spike surged past, carrying the unconscious Drusilla.

"See ya round, Harris," said Spike.

"Hopefully not," replied Xander.

William the Bloody smirked at him and rushed out of the main door. Xander turned his attention back to the fight.

Angelus had managed to get the upper hand somewhat, proving his superior experience counted for something. Buffy had hit the ground from a rather powerful kick that had managed to get through. She scrambled back to her feet and thrust her sword for his heart, which he parried. She spun in a neat pirouette trying to use the extra momentum to add to the power of her swing. But Angelus blocked with a lunge, adding power to the counterstroke that caused the two blades to meet with such force that Buffy's blade bounced back the way it came…she was not prepared at all for it and the tip of her sword buried itself in the low wall of a nearby planting bed.

Angelus seized the advantage and stomped on the blade before she could raise it again and knocked it away from her grip. He spun around and elbowed her powerfully in the face, knocking her back into a stone table, which collapsed and fell with her.

Buffy genuflected to an upright position and was now forced to retreat as Angelus now began to slowly and deliberately advance on her with his blade. Xander would've intervened at this point had he not seen the look in Buffy's eyes and he knew her capabilities; her face was showing fright…but she was far from beaten.

"Is that all you've got huh?" said Angelus mockingly, idly pointing the blade at her.

Buffy closed her eyes and was seemingly bowing to the inevitable.

"Oh well…" said the Master Vampire with a shrug, he drew the sword back and thrust it forward aiming to stab it through Buffy's face.

But with lightning fast reflexes she clapped her hands together, trapping the blade between her palms; stopping it inches from her face. She opened her eyes and met his.

"We're just getting warmed up," smirked Buffy.

She shoved the blade away from herself and the hilt of Angelus' own sword smashed into his face. He staggered back and she advanced with a kick in the chest that made him stumble even more. She flung up her own discarded sword with the tip of her shoe and caught it out of the air and rushed at the still floundering Angelus.

She swung and thrust at him, but he managed to recover enough to parry. They engaged in another round about battle of back and forth, matching each other stroke for stroke. Buffy span around and attacked with an overhead swing, he held up his own sword to block, but the power of it was enough to drive him to one knee. She swung again, and he blocked, following it up with a roundhouse kick to his side, that sent Angelus crashing to the floor.

He tried to get up again, but another devastating kick sent the Master vamp flying and crashing painfully to the floor. Before he could up again to his feet Buffy leapt in and swung her sword at him. He almost missed parrying her blow and he stepped back to try and get back to his feet. But Buffy did not allow him to regain the initiative and sent attacks crashing into the dazed Angelus.

Finally, Angelus missed a block, and got sliced rather viciously on his sword hand. It cluttered out of the vampires grip to the floor, and he next received a high kick to his face. He fell backward and landed right in front of the spot where Acathla had once stood.

He struggled to get to his knees, but Buffy loomed over him, sword in hand and ready to deliver the final blow. She steeled herself and began to swing…

…only to stay herself when she saw Angelus suddenly gasp loudly and groaning in pain. His eyes glowed bright red for an instant and went back to their usual dark self. He looked back up to her and instantly collapsed to the floor, crying and sobbing. Buffy stared down at him, but still held the sword raised behind her. Angel raised himself back up, his eyes heavy with tears, and looked into her eyes…eyes that was filled anguish…and humanity.

"Buffy?" asked Angel, sobbing, "what's going on?"

"Buffy STOP!" called Xander.

"Xander? What's going on?" demanded Buffy, not letting her guard drop. Xander moved to stand next to her, his Mek'leth's lowered.

"I was informed just after I rescued Giles…Willow was attempting the Curse again as you battled with him," he told her.

"And you didn't tell me?" she said in astonishment.

"The chances of it succeeding was slim, Buffy, I'm amazed she pulled it off…it makes me think that she must have had some help. Nevertheless I apologize for not telling you…you would not have committed your all into the battle against Angelus…and that would have assuredly lead to your death."

"I…I was Angelus again?" said Angel with pain lacing his words, as he clutched the blessed wounds in his hand and shoulder.

"Yes," nodded Xander. "The memories of his actions these past months will come to you soon Angel." Buffy's sword fell with a loud clank that echoed through the room as she grabbed Angel in a hug and began sobbing in relief. "I will leave you two to make with the reconciliation smoochies. But you cannot stay long Buffy, we need to get you out of Sunnydale."

She nodded and Xander turned to head out of the mansion.

Once outside in the early morning sun, he secured his Mek'leth's in their holsters in his trenchcoat.

"Nice to have a happy ending, albeit bittersweet," said Whistler. The balance demon was chewing on a toothpick and leaning against the mansion atrium's wall. Xander glanced at the 'man' and gave him a sneer.

"Your advice would've had her killing 'Liam' to stop Acathla…you picked your words carefully."

"It's my kind's unfortunate lot," said Whistler. "We can't be explicit in how we direct our protégés to achieve balance. I saw three-probability lines…one Buffy gets killed, Acathla destroys the world…two, Buffy is forced to kill Angel to stop the opened vortex…and three, the eventuality we are now finding ourselves in…thanks to you."

"And which one achieved balance?" frowned Xander.

"Since Buffy is going away from the hellmouth for a while, Balance is maintained, though the creation of a third Slayer was a curve ball I didn't see," said Whistler thoughtfully. "Kendra will have to leave Sunnydale as soon as she is well and not return for at least four years."

"So any way we slice it there will be no Slayer here for the holidays," surmised Xander.

"Angel will be here, and you, your girl and that hot Vulcan chick are no slouches, you'll be fine," said Whistler dismissively, chucking away his toothpick. "Anyway, I better go, get the ball rolling on this, just a final good luck to you Xander. You'll need it for the coming holidays."

Whistler abruptly vanished with a multicolored strobe flash of energy.

"Xander to Willow," he tapped his combadge. "We saved the world…again."

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DWX Transporter Room 

All the Scoobies, including Doc Howser, Angel, Cordelia and Kendra (in a wheelchair) were packed into the Transporter room to give Buffy her send off. She had decided that she would lay low in L.A. until the charges against her could be rescinded and Mrs S resolved once that was done that she would petition the State directly to order Snyder to allow Buffy back in school.

The Slayer was in tears, hugging and kissing the lot of them, though she obviously saved the most serious smoochies for Angel.

"I'm gonna miss you all," she said sniffing as she finally embraced Dawn and her mother in a group hug.

"Stay safe," said Mrs S softly but turned stern in a moment. "And don't spend all the cash Xander loaned you on shoes."

"Of course not," she giggled tearfully. "I'll use the pay for any part-time job I find for that."

"Bye, big sis, love ya," said Dawn, in was quite a counterpoint to say big sister and have your little sister actually be taller than you, mused Xander from the Transporter controls.

Buffy gave a final wave at everyone and picked up her bags and moved to stand on the central blue transporter pad.

"Bye Buffster, keep your wits about you, I'm putting you in the ladies bathroom of a bus station in outer L.A. There's no one in there at the moment."

She nodded.

"Energizing," said Xander slid his fingers on the controls. The Transporter hummed to life and the Slayer vanished in a twinkle of blue light.

Everyone began to leave and eventually, it was only Xander and Dawn left; a troubled expression on her face.

"What's the matter?" he asked softly, embracing her from behind. She snuggled for a moment against him and sighed contentedly.

"I didn't want to add to the bad news, at least I think its bad news," she said eventually.

"What is it?"

"Our subspace sensor array is finished," she reported.

"Well done," he said, giving her slight squeeze and a kiss on her neck.

"I did a passive sensor sweep of the Sol System and Earth," she said with a sigh.

"And?"

"We're not alone."

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_A/N: There you have it. This chapter was niggling me the whole time and I couldn't concentrate on my next chapter of 'Ancient's Journey' until I had this one out of my system. For those wonderin' instead of Willow being possessed by dead Jenny to finish the Curse, T'Jen stepped in'. Please tell me you've gotten the larger crossover. Yes…Chris Carter's paranoid universe The X-Files. All credit to him. The events in the X-Files movie 'Fight the Future' is seen here, with the bombing of the building with the FEMA offices to hide the bodies of the two firemen and kid infected with the Alien Colonist Purity virus. Don't expect to see the intrepid Mulder and Scully too soon, though. But they will 'encounter' the Scoobies soon enough._


	9. Chapter 9 First Contact

Chapter 9 – First Contact

**Chapter 9 – First Contact**

**DWX Campus, Sunnydale**

Giles parked his Aston in its designated parking spot and gave a sigh of frustration. Now that the summer holidays were here he'd been hoping to take a break as it were from his job here at DWX. There were no visits or impending clients, and he'd been hoping to take a flight home to England for a bit, whilst the rest of the Scoobies were busy arranging matters to ensure that Buffy would be able to return and not have to fear being arrested.

Alas, it was not to be. Two days had passed since Buffy was beamed into hiding, and he had barely resolved to buy the ticket for the flight when Xander had called over the Com and stated that there was a 'situation' that needed their urgent collective attention. It frustrated the Watcher that the young android hybrid had not been more elaborate in his explanation, only stating that it was too complicated to explain over a comlink.

He walked into lobby of the main office building after swiping his keycard in the reader of the main doors. Doing so apparently triggered a localized molecular scanner to determine if he was really Rupert Giles and opened the transparent aluminum doors (since there were a number of demons that could shapeshift). He noted with surprise that there was now a large elegantly designed reception desk facing the doors. He didn't recall anyone mentioning that they would be hiring a receptionist. There was no one seated behind the desk but he made a mental note to ask Xander about it.

The elevator took him to the third floor and soon he walked into the designated Conference room that they would be apparently using for this meeting. He was the last to arrive. Xander and Dawn stood at the head of the table and were intensely discussing something in a low undertone. Oz and Willow were seated furthest away and were each tapping away and reviewing large Padds (Personal Access Display Device). Despite being able to use a Tricorder, Giles found using the Padds to be singularly awkward and he could never seem to really grasp the interface. Dr Howser seated across from them seemed to be simply staring into space, but Giles knew the young genius doctor was no doubt immersed in some or other medical problem.

The presence of Angel explained why the room's blinds were tightly shut and the lights switched on. The mere sight of the vampire with a soul elicited a momentary hot anger in Giles that made him want to reach for his Phaser and simply vaporize the brooding vampire. Angel was wearing his typical dark clothes and was tapping idly on the desk. The vampire briefly met Giles' eyes and winced before returning his brooding gaze to the spot on the opposite wall.

The fact that T'Jen was sitting next to Angel also didn't help matters. For her part, she seemed totally unperturbed by the presence of the vampire that had tried to kill her not so long ago. She also had a Padd in her hand that had the diagram of the _Delta Flyer_ on it. Thinking about the space vessel that was being built filled Giles with wonder, yet also a great sense of apprehension and worry. There was no telling who or what could be out there, and Earth in its current technological and political state could not deal with something like the Borg.

Pulling his thoughts back outward, the presence of the last two attendees in the meeting was a surprise, seated opposite Oz and Willow was Joyce and Cordelia.

"Ah, morning Giles," said Xander with a smile that didn't seem to come from his eyes for some reason. Something was definitely not right. "Sorry to spoil your vacation plans."

"Good Morning…and if there is a very good reason for it I doubt I would find objection," said Giles and took a seat next to Cordelia.

"Yes, well after you all hear what Dawn and I have to say, well, I doubt we'll be sleeping soundly in our beds anymore…and since this is Sunnydale, that is saying something."

"I take it you've found something with the subspace sensor array?" said Dr Howser.

"Yes," said Dawn, a troubled look on her face. She walked to a small control panel embedded into the large oak conference table and tapped a sequence of buttons. The lights dimmed and abruptly a highly accurate hologram of the Earth appeared in mid air. "I'll begin with what we've discovered on Earth itself." Abruptly luminescent orange dots appeared all over the planet that projected lines that crisscrossed each other and seemed to converge mainly in two places, New York, and slightly just outside Washington D.C.

"What you are seeing are a network of focused, modulated tachyon streams that are being projected from various locations around the globe," explained Xander. "And before you ask, a Tachyon is an elementary particle with a variety of practical uses, in this case, its being used for Faster than Light communication."

"Xander, Tachyon's are purely theoretical for the current standards of technology on Earth," said Doc Howser.

"Exactly," nodded Xander. "Yet, you can clearly see the network that covers our planet. The locations of each link in the chain are significant…every capital city of each country on the planet is linked to this grid. Next, we note that there are two places that seem to be significant convergence points, most likely indicating a central hub of sorts. The first is in New York…" the hologram of the Earth seemed to zoom in on the Eastern Seaboard, and soon a high resolution image of a very familiar building appeared.

"The United Nations building?" said Giles in astonishment.

"Yes, that's one, the other convergence is…" the hologram now shifted again to show a fenced off complex that was near a mountain. "A US military installation in Mount Weather, Bluemont, Virginia."

"Next, there are two further transmission stations of note, the first is rather well known actually," said Dawn, the hologram zoomed out again to show a map of the United States and then zoomed in to Nevada to show what looked to be an Airbase.

"Area 51!" exclaimed Willow.

"Yes," nodded Dawn, "a careful scan of the area was most revealing."

"Aren't you worried that you might be detected?" asked Oz.

"There are no subspace signatures or technology anywhere on the planet besides ours," said Xander, shaking his head.

"What did you find there?" asked Giles curiously, he had to admit he'd always been fascinated about the hype of the place. The Watcher's Council theorized that the US government, despite not knowing about the existence of the supernatural in general, kept many occult artifacts confiscated from the Nazi's during World War 2 in the fabled Area 51.

"A rather large underground research complex that is giving off highly energetic gravimetric emissions, and the aforementioned Tachyon's," said Dawn. "Again, the levels of energy we recorded belong to no technology that is publicly known of. Then yesterday, we scanned a craft taking off from the base."

The map was replaced in mid-air with an odd matt black triangular craft that hovered over the table.

"Aurora exists?" said Oz with a raised eyebrow.

"Again, yes," said Xander. "For those who don't know _Aurora_ is apparently a top secret hypersonic aircraft powered by slush hydrogen and uses pulse detonation engines. But I can tell you now that is a load of sh…disinformation. Because we scanned it reaching fifteen times the speed of sound, and it performed maneuvers that would turn its pilot to jelly, had it not been for the gravitational field it projected around itself. Its actually powered by a fusion energy source that produces a tachyon flux that craft utilizes to fold space around itself. Its not unlike a Warp Drive, except it only has a single gravitational distortion coil…which is not enough to enter subspace, but is more than good enough for sublight propulsion."

"The next transmission spot for the Tachyon network that is highly significant is in Wilkes Land, Antarctica," continued Dawn. The hologram zoomed out and in towards the southern pole of the planet. "There is supposed to be nothing here but the thickest ice sheet on Earth, but as you can see there is a dome base that seems to be camouflaged from standard satellite imagery and numerous human lifesigns. Underneath this base we've detected metals that are not on the current periodic table, unfortunately the thickness of the ice obscures our readings somewhat, but we can get a general impression of what's buried there." The hologram changed again to show the rough outline of a gigantic saucer shaped craft easily two kilometers in diameter.

Giles felt the familiar headache and took off his glasses, and rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"Are you certain of this Xander?" he asked. Xander and Dawn leveled a hard stare at the Watcher. "OK, ok, it's just that…Oh, blast, I don't know how to say it."

"Maybe you mean that it's hard to believe that all those UFO nuts that exist out there are actually on to something?" said Cordelia with a smile.

"But I haven't seen anything so far to be concerned about," said Joyce in confusion. "Obviously the governments of the world has technology that they've salvaged from…from an alien ship buried in the ice under Antarctica, and they can't admit to it for some reason."

"They perhaps fear the reaction the world would have to confirmation of alien life," mused Giles.

"We're far from finished," said Dawn astutely and tapped the controls again. Earth again appeared over the table and the Tachyon network, except this time an orange line shot out towards the Moon and headed towards a large crater on its surface.

"Are you telling me there's a Moon base too?" said Willow with eyes like saucers.

"Not a base," said Xander shaking his head. "At the coordinates for this transmission station in the network we've detected a cloaking field, a rather sophisticated one, but nonetheless one our 24th Century Federation-Borg sensor array can detect. Beyond this field is a ship with the same dimensions as the one buried in Antarctica. On board we detected over three thousand life signs…non-human life signs."

A pregnant silence settled in the room.

"Using the alien lifesigns as a calibration, we scanned Earth again," said Dawn. The hologram refocused on Earth and now small green dots started to appear here and there, mostly focused on major population centers and cities. "There aren't many on Earth, a total of two hundred or so…but they're among us."

"Obviously, they've taken means to blend into the background and have taken our appearance," said Xander.

"It's what the Federation does as well when observing a pre-warp civilization," pointed out Oz.

"True," admitted Xander. "And I understand that we can't judge anything from just these scans. But…it just doesn't feel right. The Federation wouldn't contact Earth as it is now, nor would they give advanced technology to the culture in question. The UN and the government of every country of planet have contact with these aliens. That is fact. Over the period of the last two days, Dawn and I scanned smaller alien craft going to and fro between the moon and Earth on four occasions."

"Alien tourists?" said Cordelia sarcastically.

"Men in Black is just a movie, Cordie," said Xander with a sigh.

"I know," said the Teen Queen of Sunnydale indignantly. "Just thought you'd like my input, since you invited me to join your…company."

"On a side note," said Xander hurriedly, "I've invited Cordelia to join DWX, and I believe she would be useful since there are four centuries of advancements in clothing and fashion to market to the world."

"Moving on," said Dawn promptly, clearing her throat. "We don't believe they are here for benevolent purposes, since when we scanned the ships returning to the Moon, they carried at least ten humans back with them."

"They're abducting them," said Angel flatly.

"It appears that way," said Xander, nodding his head. "And I doubt that the aliens are serving them tea and cookies."

"Xander, please tell me you're joking," moaned Willow.

"Why would I do that?"

"Because I was so looking forward to going out there and meeting new friendly happy enlightened oh so out there races and people…and now…" her shoulders slumped.

"I'm sorry, Wills, you can go and run your own scans right now…but you'll only get the same story," said Dawn sadly.

"Do we have more data on the technological capabilities of these…aliens?" said T'Jen stoically.

"Our scans of the 'Mothership' on the Moon are limited because of its cloak," explained Xander. "But we got a pretty good read on the smaller ships."

The hologram shifted and changed shape; a ninety-meter diameter squared-saucer ship appeared, it was ten meters in height and gave off an eerie green glow along its grooved surface.

"This ship is powered by a micro-singularity, or in laymen's terms a tiny artificial black hole. It harvests the radiation and gravimetric energy generated and converts it into usable energy for the ship's systems. It has a Warp coil, like the Aurora, and emits gravity waves to propel itself obviously at much greater speeds. We observed this one going fifteen thousand kilometers per second, and I estimate it could do triple that at maximum power."

"FTL?" asked Oz.

"Nothing obvious we could detect, the mothership probably has some form of Faster than light travel," posited Dawn.

"Armaments?" said T'Jen.

"We scanned what we think is a form of exotic subatomic matter disruptor, mounted on the edges of the craft, underneath is a multi spectral radiation emitter…it can literally bathe you in various forms of radiation on a moments notice, we also think that it can serve as a tractor beam, or even a localized transporter. Defensively, it has a Cloaking system and an ablative hull that spreads any damage it gets over a greater surface area. It also has a form of energy shielding that is unable to operate in an atmosphere."

"Is their homeworld within range of our scanners?" asked Dr Howser.

"We scanned the local region around our Solar System to the limit of our sensor range, which is twenty light years at high resolution, the limit we can distinguish life signs at," explained Xander. "These aliens can't be found within that radius except in Sol. So we must either assume they have FTL or that they put themselves into artificial hibernation for the decades a sublight journey would take."

"Alpha Canis Minoris is within range, did you scan it?" asked T'Jen suddenly, an almost intent inflection in her voice.

"Alpha watzis what?" said Cordelia.

"She means this star," said Dawn. The hologram now zoomed out with massive speed, until the Sun was just a pinprick of light among many others. A star just within the twenty light year scanning range flashed to draw their attention to it. Giles didn't really know how you spoke about relative direction in space, but if the galaxy were flat, then Alpha Canis Minoris would be south south east of Sol. "Otherwise known as the Andorian System."

"Oh, you mean the blue aliens with the antenna," said Joyce, everyone turned bemused looks to her. "Hey, I watched the original show."

"Yes, we did scan it…there are indications of lifesigns, we can't tell if its Andorian or not. In fact, neither Dawn nor myself can make heads or tails of readings we got. One moment we think its only microscopic, the next it seems as if there's humanoid life. Dr Howser, here is the data, see what you can make of it." Xander handed a Padd over.

"No problem," said the Doc, glancing over the device, "I should have some preliminary findings for you by tomorrow."

"Good," said Xander with a nod, "now, obviously we need more information on this species, what they call themselves, their true intentions, capabilities, culture, everything. To that end I'm proposing that we recon the nearest link in the Tachyon network, see what's going on with our own eyes."

"Are you sure that's wise, Xander?" said Giles. "If these aliens have got links with the governments of the planet and they identify us, we could be facing our own military or law enforcement agencies."

"Which is why we go incognito, and why I've asked Angel to be here," said Xander with a smirk. "Who better to sneak around and lurk in places unseen than a vampire at night?"

"Makes sense," nodded Angel, "I've no body heat, so I'm invisible to infrared cameras."

"You won't have to worry about that too much, since I could easily override any current security systems in use," said Xander with a grin. "It's when there are human guards that your stealth skills will become an asset. Since we can't afford to leave a trail, even if it's just tranquilizing a guard, coz when he wakes he'll report it and then our secrecy is partially blown."

"Where specifically is this link?" asked Dr Howser.

"About a two hundred miles west of Dallas, literally in the middle of a desert," said Dawn.

"Makes sense, no one to poke around," said Oz.

"So who's going?"

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The dark, arid, rocky terrain sang with the cool night air whistling through the crags and hills. A small lizard, taking advantage of the darkness and low temperature scurried between the rocks, mindful that it would tire quickly in the cold night, eager to seek refuge in the warmer earth. It was startled however when there was a low humming sound and a few feet in front of it, strange patterns of blue light seemed to come from nowhere.

The blue light vanished and suddenly the lizard bolted to hide.

"The place should be just over this hill," said Xander, gesturing to his right and then pulling out his Tricorder and consulting it thoughtfully.

"I don't like wearing this," said Angel uncomfortably. Xander glanced at the vampire; he was wearing his typical dark getup of black jeans and shirt, but now had a tactical vest with a UMP clipped to it and combat boots, his face was also covered with a black ski mask to hide his identity.

"Well, I'm wearing the same outfit, and you don't see me complaining do you? In any case, there's no one within fifteen kilometers of our position. It looks like whatever this place is, it may be automated…so you won't have to worry about sneaking past guards on this occasion."

Angel simply grumped in reply.

The duo set off, threading their way easily through the rocky terrain and climbing over the hill. The sight that met their eyes as they reached the summit was rather startling. In the valley below were two brightly lit white domes that almost looked like huge artificial tortoiseshells. The light from it illuminated a vast cornfield that surrounded the domes on all sides.

"Weird," said Angel shaking his head.

Xander inwardly agreed with the sentiment; thinking of why someone would go through the logistical trouble of having to pipeline water all the way into the desert to sustain a cornfield of all things. Not to mention, how did this figure in with the aliens?

"C'mon."

They headed down the hill and were soon just a few meters away from the border of the cornfield when Xander called a halt.

"What is it?"

"There's a laser security net on the perimeter," said Xander, tapping on his Tricorder. He walked carefully forward, approaching one of the tall corn stalks that stood over two meters in height. "Take a look." He bent down and grabbed some loose sand in his hand and threw it forward towards the gap between the stalks…and abruptly four laser beams seemed to blossom out of thin air. "The stalks on the perimeter are actually disguised laser emitters."

"Ok, so how do we get through?" asked Angel.

"Give me a sec, I can interrupt the beams temporarily, first I'll establish an interface with the net…" said Xander, tapping furiously on his Tricorder as he spoke, "…got it, now to fool it into give false signals…then we interrupt the feed…tada." Another handful of dust showed there were no more lasers.

They surged through the perimeter and walked through the stalks, setting a brisk pace and aiming for the domes. After a few minutes they stopped just before they would emerge from the field and were right next to the domes…from this distance Xander could see they were made of a flexible slightly porous material stretched over an internal structure of steel ribbing. A few meters away an entry way was visible that jutted out slightly from the overall structure.

"These are not normal corn stalks," whispered Xander, waving his Tricorder towards the closest one next to him.

"In what way?" said Angel.

"They've been genetically altered, for what purpose I can't say without more analysis," said Xander, reaching out and breaking off a piece of the stalk. He pulled out of his backpack a plastic bag and sealed the piece inside, replacing the bag in his pack. "There are hidden surveillance cameras in the entrance and inside the domes, I need to disable them before we can move forward."

This took up another five minutes of Xander fiddling with the advanced Tricorder.

"You done yet?" said Angel, his voice sounding impatient.

"I've looped the feed, we're good," nodded Xander.

The duo approached the steel door of the entryway, and was held up again, when Xander had to disable a sensor on the door, which showed if it was open or closed to the central system.

"These guys like their privacy," groused Angel as they entered the dome.

"Quite," said Xander, looking up at the fans that covered the roof of the small entryway that was blasting air onto them. They walked carefully forward and into the dome's interior expanse. Inside, it was bright, stark and the floor was lined with chrome shutters, with mesh walkways that cut between them. A high humming sound was now reaching their ears that almost sounded like…

"Is that electicity?" asked Angel pointedly.

"Hmm," said Xander, "nope, I'm detecting a massive bio-mass underneath the floor shutters, we're actually on top of a larger structure. I just need to differentiate…"

"It's bees," said Angel shortly.

"What? Yes, how did you know?"

Angel held up a dead bee he had picked up from the floor between his thumb and forefinger.

"Oh," said Xander sheepishly, pulling out another plastic bag to gather the bee for analysis. "Ok, let's see if we can't find the Tachyon transmitter."

They walked to the center of the two domes that they could now see were actually interconnected with each other. There they found a circular chrome dish of sorts on the floor, which looked simply like a central point for the domes, unless you had a Tricorder of course. Xander knelt on the catwalk that circled around it and began to feel along the inside edge of the dish.

"What are you looking for?"

"There must be a way to open this so maintenance can be performed," explained Xander. "Ah, here we go." In a small recess underneath a lip that circled the edge, was a small switch. There was a hiss of hydraulics and abruptly the dish split itself into pie-like pieces that retracted into the darkness, the sound of a small motive was heard next and out of the circular hole raised a device about a meter in height. It looked like a highly exotic piece of technology, a cylinder of chrome that was transparent in an almost artistic wavy pattern, the transparent sections flashed with a dull yellow inner light in consistent pattern.

"Is it alien?" asked Angel.

"Surprisingly not," said Xander in answer, staring at the readouts on his Tricorder. "The chrome metal that you're seeing is an alloy of chromium, carbon and titanium. The interior circuitry is highly sophisticated but human as well, it's the internal architecture of the chips in the circuits that are not. It is way beyond current computer technology…not to mention the Tachyon power source. I'll see if I can download anything from its memory…they have firewalls, bypassing…" a beeping from the Tricorder interrupted Xander's monologue, "shit…I'm detecting two human lifesigns approaching the perimeter of the cornfield…"

There was a sudden hiss and the transmitter began to descend back into its housing, its flashing pattern changed noticeably before the dish pieces slid over it and sealed it off again.

"Run! A silent alarm has been triggered!" barked Xander.

Both of them sped towards the door, one with preternatural vampire speed, and the other with enhanced android mobility. They burst out into the night, shutting the entrance door behind them.

"Call for a beam out!" said Angel, as they ran along between the stalks.

Xander tapped his combadge three times and then twice in quick succession. There were twinkles of blue light and a whining sound and they vanished in mid run.

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**DWX Sickbay, Sunnydale, California**

The doors to the Sickbay swished open and in the threshold was a Xander that looked as if he had gone twelve rounds with a grease monkey, not that it was actually grease, since Douglas doubted that any oil product was involved in the construction of a 24th century starship.

"Xander, glad you could join me," said Douglas with a grin of bemusement at the android's state.

"I have to get back to working on the quantum induction drive for the _Flyer_, not to mention the redesigned Tactical array, can we make this quick?" said Xander mildly.

"Very well," sighed Douglas, "though I have a distinct feeling your little ship will matter little in the long run considering what I've found."

"And what is that?"

"Take a look for yourself," said Douglas, walking over to the sub-molecular scanner interface, and adjusting its faceport so Xander could have a look. The android frowned and peered into the visual interface that enveloped the upper half of a person's face.

"A virus…but…what the fu…" Xander pulled his head out of the device and stared at Douglas in astonishment.

"My thoughts exactly," said Douglas. "The stalk of that corn has been polygenetically altered to carry that virus…the bee you recovered was also altered to carry that virus in its sting sac instead of its normal dose of venom, in effect a natural perfectly hidden delivery system for the virus."

"But this virus its' DNA sequences are off the scale in complexity," said Xander faintly. "In fact it almost resembles…"

"The biomorphic substance that a Shapeshifter is composed of, like the Founders in the Gamma Quadrant of the Trek Universe, I referenced it against the medical database," said Douglas grimly. "Except that this 'Virus' appears to be a considerably more limited in its biomorphic abilities in its current form, and its appearance is like that of black oil, it's highly intelligent…that sample you see I've had to place in stasis so it would stay put…before that it kept trying avoid my instruments' scans inside its petri dish."

Xander glanced intently at him for a few seconds before turning back to the scanner. "I suggest you keep it in stasis, Doctor. I take it can only be spread by physical contact?"

"Yes, it's too heavy to be capable of airborne transmission," nodded Douglas. "In addition I've discovered that there is a correlation to the 'virus' and the alien lifesigns we detected on the Moon and Earth."

"Let me guess…they're the same?" said Xander expectantly.

"Yes," nodded Douglas. "The aliens are the virus, and vice versa."

"Ok, let's say hypothetically that this bee carrying the virus…stings someone, what would happen?"

"I don't know, any number of things," said Douglas. "The computer is still working on that question. But I can't imagine anything good would happen to the poor soul who was infected with this thing."

"Ok, keep me updated, by the way, have you made any progress on our Andorian mystery?" asked Xander curiously.

"I've studied the sensor data, and now in light of what I've found out about the virus…"

"The humanoid life we're detecting is infected with the virus?"

"It's a reasonable assumption," sighed Douglas, "but the only way to know for sure is to go to Alpha Canis Minoris and find out first hand."

"Which is why we need our little ship," said Xander with mock grin. "Good work, Doctor."

"You're welcome, now get out of my Sickbay before you foul the place up."

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Three days passed with Xander, Dawn, T'Jen, Oz and Willow immersing themselves into building the _Delta Flyer_. Progress was slow and frustrating. The biggest obstacle being the lack of 'competent, skilled' engineers…whilst Oz and Willow had come a long way in a short time by building the Sickbay and Holodeck on the Campus, they were still far from 24th Century standards when it came to shipbuilding and its associated sciences. Xander and Dawn had to constantly look over the work their friends had done…they also had to do the same for T'Jen but to a lesser extent. Whilst the Vulcan was much more competent…T'Jen was a Science Officer foremost…not an engineer, and still had two centuries of technical advancement to get to grips with.

The next obstacle facing the group was the fact that it would be a very different _Delta Flyer_ than the one the crew of the _USS Voyager_ had built.

A mini Matter/Anti-Matter Reactor would not power it, but a Zero Point Reactor instead; this alone required a redesign of the standard EPS power distribution system. Then there was the Quantum Slipstream Drive, which required that the ZP Reactor channel energy into a Quantum Induction Core that was extremely difficult to build. If it weren't for Dawn and her programmable nanoprobes they would have been years if not decades away from even trying to produce a Slip Drive. The Structural Integrity Field (SIF) and Hull Geometry also had to be tweaked to allow for Slip speeds, which in laymen's terms was in excess of sixty three billion kilometers per second.

Then there was the defensive systems, T'Jen had no problems with understanding the concept of a Regenerative Shield, building it was another story, though in the end Xander thought she did a fair job of it without needing too much intervention. She didn't even try to begin building the Armor Generators or the Phase Cloak; stating that she would need at least a few years of study in 24th C Science before doing that. So she turned her attention to the weapon systems…the micro-photon torpedoes, though much more powerful and refined than their 22nd C ancestors were still the same in basic principle. Dawn also had to lend a hand here to build the Borg Phaser Arrays.

Life Support and Auxiliary systems was Willow and Oz's primary task…and they quickly understood that Life Support was not just a single all encompassing system (as it was often portrayed that way in the shows). It was in fact a complex mix of subsystems that was all geared to the preservation and comfort of a ship's crew. Artificial Gravity, Inertial Dampening System (IDF), CO2 Scrubbers, Oxygen Generators (which was actually a form of Replicator specifically geared to producing an oxygen nitrogen air mixture), Waste Recycling, and Food Replicators all worked together to make a ship a comfortable place to work in.

The Auxiliary systems also had to be built, which included Transporters, Sensors, Interface Systems (the LCARS control consoles), the central Computer core, reserve power batteries and so forth.

Optimistically, Xander estimated that they would need another month to finish the ship. And if this was what it took to build a mere twenty-one meter long, five-meter high, twelve-meter wide starship; how long would it take them to build a 166 meter Defiant Class Escort Starship? Not to mention the Sovereign or Galaxy Classes…their size meant that they couldn't be constructed on a planet due to the stresses it would place on a hull that didn't yet have a SIF system.

"We need more manpower," grumbled Xander, carefully shifting a component of the Quantum Core into place in its structural mount and bonded it in place with a molecular fuser.

"It's not exactly like we can advertise in newspaper, Xan," said Dawn with a sigh, blowing a string of hair that had fallen out of the clips that kept it braided. "Can you imagine how it would read 'Company seeks Engineers, open minded a must, must be willing to brave a dimensional hotspot to which vamps and demons are attracted, oh yes, did we mention the fact that hostile aliens have taken up camp on the Moon and seek to infect us with their viral life essence, that our government is seemingly in cahoots with them. Salary Negotiable.'"

Xander snorted in laughter.

"Yeah, Giles said he would put out feelers to anyone he could think of that would be suitable, since he is technically a member of the Academic community. Maybe he can get us a few recently graduated Engineers from Oxford or something, but we'd still have to take the time to train them as well."

Oz stuck his head out of a gap in the _Flyer_'s tetraburnium alloy hull and looked down at them.

"Overheard your conversation, I've got an idea," said the werewolf with a cool grin.

"And that is?" said Dawn, scanning the incomplete Induction Core with a Tricorder, checking for any faults.

"There's still some spare Holographic emitters left over from the Holodeck construction," said Oz.

"Oh, and how would that help…" said Xander, but trailed off as sudden inspiration came over him. "Dude, you are brilliant." Oz shrugged modestly. "Ok, everyone get out of there, group meeting!"

T'Jen and Willow also emerged from the Flyer and soon all five builders stood a few feet away from the burgeoning ship, looking a complete mess. Xander's mouth twitched at seeing T'Jen with a stained face and rumpled hair from working on the Life support; it was amazing how she still seemed to hold on to her Vulcan stoicism despite looking the way she did.

"All right, Oz has come up with a solution to our problem," explained Xander. "We are going to stop building the _Flyer_ for the moment and instead take the remaining Holo-emitters and mount them so that a hologram can be projected at any point within the Construction area of the lab."

"Oooh, you are so brilliant," said Willow, and soundly gave a kiss to her boyfriend.

"You intend to create holographic Engineers to assist us," said T'Jen with a raised eyebrow.

"Exactly," said Xander with a snap of the fingers.

"I thought an EMH was something that could not simply be created by the computer with a voice command," stated T'Jen.

"Well, yes," admitted Xander. "But an EMH level hologram is an amalgamation of the experiences of forty-seven individual Doctors, the medical knowledge of three thousand cultures, has instant library access to the entire medial database, tactile protocols to perform surgery, diagnostic subroutines to assess patients, speech recognition, the list goes on and on. To be able to create a stable holographic matrix to accommodate that data takes a Holo-engineer of considerable skill and experience, it's almost an art."

"I see," said Dawn with a grin, "we're not going to create an EEH, instead, we're simply going create holograms of individual Engineers."

"Now let's get cracking," said Xander.

8888888888888888888888

**Holodeck, DWX**

The team of five had after an hour of setting up the holo-field emitters around the _Flyer_, finally come to the Holodeck to select whom they were going to enlist to help them. Looking around Xander saw that it was a rather nice facsimile of the late 24th Century design, in use on Intrepid and Sovereign class starships.

"Ok, let's begin," said Xander, tapping a Padd that held a roster of Engineers that he had referenced. "Computer, display a holographic representation of Geordi La Forge, last available image."

The mid-sized dark skinned Chief Engineer of the _Enterprise-E_ fizzled into existence on the Holodeck. He wore the most recent black and dark gray Starfleet uniform with the orange colored undershirt and collar.

"Hey, he's not wearing the VISOR," said Willow curiously, referring to metallic band that Geordi used to wear over his eyes, since he was born blind. The VISOR allowed him to see in a great range of light frequencies beyond human norms.

"Yes, he received ocular implants that performed the same function in 2373," said Xander thoughtfully. "Computer, implant an interactive personality matrix accurate to Commander La Forge's last psychiatric evaluation in 2379."

'_Modification complete,_" droned the female computer voice.

"Computer, load equivalent mobility and dexterity subroutines based on Commander La Forge's physical characteristics."

'_Modification complete._'

'Computer, link the Borg and Federation technical databases to the holographic matrix."

'_Modification complete._'

"Computer, install an awareness subroutine…that explains our current physical, temporal and quantum location, including the fact that I am Data. Oh yes, include a recursive algorithm."

"_Installation complete._"

"Ok, let's see if this works," said Xander and stepped forward to face his impassive friend, who was hopefully still alive and well in the other Universe. "Activate Program." The computer beeped an affirmative response and instantly the hologram of Geordi La Forge became aware and came alive.

"Hello Geordi," said Xander hopefully.

Geordi blinked and focused on Xander and then began to laugh in excitement, bounding forward and enveloping the android in a hug.

"It really is you, isn't it?" said Geordi in amazement, pulling away from Xander. "Do I call you Data or Xander?"

"Yes, it is me as it were, and I'm not just Data…call me Xata if you wish," said Xander, feeling a distinct sadness overcome him at seeing this representation of his or rather 'Data's' best friend. He had missed him.

"'All right, Xata…Oh…And I'm a hologram?"

"Yes, and we need your help my friend," said Xander grimly. In the following hour he introduced his friends to Geordie and they explained the situation on Earth, with the Hellmouth, the as yet unknown aliens that were seemingly manipulating the planet's governments and so forth. Finally, Geordi nodded that he understood and frowned thoughtfully.

"Well, I'll say you've got the odds stacked well and truly against you," said Geordie, glancing at the five assembled Scoobies. "Since this is another Universe, there's no Federation, and since these aliens are already here in 1998, '99, I think the Prime Directive can be ignored. So what do you need me to do?"

"Do you see the Federation-Borg database?" said Xander in answer.

"Hmm…oh, there it is, wow, I'm like a walking Engineering encyclopedia now," said Geordi with a grin. "I can tell you the finer points of temporal physics, a subject I've always hated, list every particle in known existence, so that's how the Borg achieve Transwarp…damn, I knew they were advanced but this is ridiculous."

"Well, we need your help to build our modified _Delta Flyer_, if you access the central computer you can see its specifications."

"I see it, oh, amazing…that is going to be one powerful little ship," said Geordi looking impressed. "Shouldn't be a problem."

"Good, who else would you need on the team?"

"Hmmm, I've always loved working with the SCE, can't you drum me up a holographic team of them?"

"SCE?" asked Willow in confusion.

"Starfleet Core of Engineers," said Geordi proudly. "The miracle workers of the Alpha Quadrant. Us starship types are good in emergencies and riding into the sunset, but it's the SCE who comes in behind our wake and repairs, rebuilds, and gets things going again, they're the true engineers."

"Ah, I think I know just the team," grinned Xander. He tapped the Padd and uploaded the specifications. "Computer, save program under heading 'Engineer Alpha'. Repeat the procedure but with specified changes in relevant personnel and personalities."

'_Stand by…program run complete_.'

"Run programs."

Next to Geordi, appeared five more holograms, one of which caused Willow to gasp in apprehension. This was because the hologram was representing a member of a large insectoid alien race from the Nasat System; it resembled a pill bug, if it could be grown to human proportions with eight arms and legs. 'Her' name was P8 Blue, or Pattie and while not part of the Federation, she had thrown in her lot with the SCE. She was one of the best structural engineers on the personnel roster of the SCE.

The other four were less exotic and one was instantly recognizable as Lieutenant Commander B'Lanna Torres Paris, the Terran/Klingon hybrid, and former Chief Engineer of the _USS Voyager_; whom had eventually accepted a position at the Utopia Planitia Shipyards after two years of caring for her newborn daughter (whom had been born on the ship's last push towards Sector 001). Letting her husband Tom Paris, Voyager's former Helm Officer look after the child at home whilst he pursued his Holo-writer career from its comfort.

The other three were human and Xander was sure Geordi would know them quite well as he had worked with them on a few memorable occasions. They were Commander Sonya Gomez; an excellent Engineer, but also a particularly skilled leader and organizer. Next was Lieutenant Fabian Stevens who had been an engineer with Starfleet for a number of years, including a long stint on the _Defiant_. He was an expert in tactical systems, and finally Lieutenant Commander Kieran Duffy, another of the SCEs top Engineers. They were the SCE front line team that served on board the _USS da Vinci_.

"Ah, you know me so well," chuckled Geordi in appreciation. "Hey guys," he waved to his fellow bemused and slightly disoriented Engineering holograms.

"Geordi?" said Gomez in confusion, the attractive blonde woman looking around at her surroundings. "Are we…?"

"Yes," nodded Geordi.

"Is that the…?"

"Yes the Borg database, amazing isn't it?"

"We'll leave you guys to catch up, Geordi, will you fill them in?" asked Xander.

"Go ahead," said Geordi kindly, shooing the five Scoobies out the Holodeck, "we'll call when we're ready to transfer over to the lab."

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Xander stood with his arm around Dawn at the edge of the demarcated construction area for the _Delta Flyer_, as they watched six holographic Engineers working with Willow, Oz and T'Jen. Kieran Duffy had taken Oz under his wing, whilst Pattie was working and teaching T'Jen on the hull and SIF of the _Flyer_, Xander had to add a Universal Translator program so the Nasat's clicks and screeching speech could be understood. Finally, Commander Gomez had taken an eager Willow under her tuition.

"So what do you think Geordi?" asked Xander. Geordi pulled himself out from the undercarriage of the ship.

"Well, so far I can't find much fault," said the Engineer thoughtfully. "There are a few molecular welds that would need to be redone…your AG systems are a bit of a mess and the Intertial Dampeners need to be realigned to accommodate Slip speeds properly."

"How long do you think?"

"Depends how urgently you need this ship," said Geordi nonchalantly. "We're holograms, no need for food or rest, we'll keep going until you tell us to stop."

"You are A.I. amalgams of real people, and you're my friend Geordi, you're only working as much as you wish," insisted Xander seriously but then smiled. "Don't forget I technically outrank you another Universe or not."

"Well, in that case, about twelve days," smiled Geordi with a nod. "That's includes rebuilding that section of the roof so that it can retract for the_ Flyer_."

"Excellent…"

The conversation was interrupted when a beeping from Xander's Tricorder screamed for attention. He pulled it out and consulted it. "It's the Antarctic alien ship, it's energy emissions have jumped up considerably." They rushed over to the large control station that interfaced with the subspace sensor array; it was built into the wall of the lab and had multiple display screens, control surfaces, and based on the LCARS touchpad interface. He sat down in front of it and his hands and fingers began to fly on the controls.

"Energy output in continuing to increase," reported Xander. "We're getting our first clear readings…its also using Artificial Singularity power, only on much greater scale."

"That's twice the output of a Romulan D'deridex Class Warbird," said Dawn with worry. "It's firing up its gravitic engines…it's going to break through the ice."

"Well, it's seems the base personnel above it know, they're evacuating," said Xander, watching as the human life signs scurried towards their snow vehicles. Over the next few minutes they watched as the Sno-cats trundled out of the large valley the alien ship was nestled in.

"Their primary coil is charged, the ice is losing structure,…" said Dawn, looking at her own readout.

"Two human life signs have just emerged from the ice, a few hundred meters away from the base…they're not going to make it before that thing leaves," said Xander.

"Wonder why it's leaving?" murmured Dawn.

"We could find out," said Xander idly, tapping the two human life signs on the screen.

"That would expose us," she said flatly. "And we don't know anything about who those two are…they could be bad guys who were just unlucky enough to be left behind…"

"We don't even know who the bad guys are yet, in this case," countered Xander.

"And you think they can help in telling us the score?"

"Maybe, we won't find out until…they're running…

"At the rate the ship is rising…" said Dawn shaking her haid.

"Take over," said Xander standing up, "get every scan you can of that ship as it rises. FTL, weapons, what they eat for breakfast, I wanna know."

"Be careful."

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**Wilkes Land, Antarctica**

Xander felt the transporter beam release him, and instantly he was assaulted with the sheer cold of the southern pole of Earth. Luckily, there was no snowstorm and the sun was up; he'd barely had time to don the thick, white wool fleece jacket and pants combination he had replicated for himself on the way out of the lab. But it was all worth it to see the sight he was now witnessing.

The alien ship had broken out of the ice and was now hovering at just over four hundred meters altitude…the sheer size of it in person conveyed a sense of power…and darkness. The hull of the ship was made of an obsidian colored alloy, with green inner lights poking through at various points of the giant saucer. It was almost Borg like, yet Xander knew that the Borg wouldn't design a saucer shaped craft…it was 'inefficient'.

Below the craft was a massive perfectly circular canyon in the ice that went all the way down into the soil of Antartica that hadn't seen the light of day since the last Ice Age. It certainly gave Xander an appreciation for the amount of time that craft had remained frozen in the ice…and for it to remain capable of flight after all this time…it spoke well of the craft's builders…and boded ill for their chances in driving the aliens off Earth.

The Mothership circled on its axis for a few moments and then began move off, steering almost soundlessly towards the bright sun in the distance, and vanished from visual range as it entered the upper atmosphere in the glare of the sun.

Xander returned his focus to the task at hand and pulled out his Tricorder, scanning for the lifesigns they had seen…and indeed it appeared that they were still alive. They were near the lip of eastern edge of the newly formed canyon and most likely had slid right off the edge of the Mothership as it ascended…their desperate running had paid off.

He braced himself against the wind that was now picking up again and began to trudge through the snow towards the two lifesigns. From what he could scan, they were also moving…or at least one of them were, whilst the other seemed to be unconscious. It took about an hour, but finally Xander closed to the point where he could see one dark clothed figure, struggling to pull their taller fellow through the snow. Xander reached into a pocket and produced a Phaser, setting it to stun and promptly sent a beam of energy to strike the figure in the back. He carefully consulted his Tricorder again and confirmed that both were unconscious.

He continued his trudge through the snow and after a few minutes managed to catch up to the two prone figures. Turning them around immediately revealed that one was a short female with red hair, the other a lightly built tall male with dark brown hair. This was all the time he could spare to look at them, as he didn't want them to get frostbite whilst he searched them.

Xander placed two combadges on them both.

"Xander to Dawn, two to beam directly to Sickbay!" he shouted over the wind.

"_Got it._"

The two unconscious figures were enveloped in sparkles of blue light and vanished.

"Tell Doc Howser to keep them sedated or in stasis, but don't wake them until we're ready! I'm ready to come home!"

Another transporter beam came out of nowhere to sweep him away from the land of cold and ice.

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_A/N: Sorry, couldn't resist this. I wanted to bring the Scooby encounter of Mulder and Scully much later, but reconsidered. Angel coming so soon into the fold?Yes, Data's influence matured Xan a lot. The alien tech is going to be based off my own ideas of them…based on what we see in The X-Files. Solving the problem of building the Delta Flyer was quite fun…it's a bit implausible to finish the ship in twelve days…but I need it for plot developments and giving the overall picture of what the Scooby Milky Way Galaxy looks like. Will there be Romulans, Vulcans etc.? Perhaps, perhaps not. You'll have to wait patiently for the Flyer to become operational._


	10. Chapter 10 A Tale of Two Agents

Chapter 10 – A Tale of Two Agents

**Chapter 10 – A Tale of Two Agents**

**DWX Lab**

Xander had given the Doc two hours to work on the pair he had rescued from Antarctica; time he used to see if the Engineers and their 'apprentices' needed any further help on the _Delta Flyer_…which they didn't so instead he had used it to analyze the sensor logs of the behemoth Mothership that had emerged from the Ice, so to speak.

Dawn had gone off to regenerate for the day so that left him all alone in front of the Sensor station. It was two hours of analysis that left him with a bitter taste in his mouth. A fully-fledged Starfleet _Defiant_, _Sovereign_ or _Prometheus _class would find this Mothership a tough nut to crack. Upgrading them with Borg technology extensively would even the odds in a one-on-one battle, but what about on a Fleet scale, when numbers were important as much as the quality of the ships.

The FTL mode of the Mothership was quite ingenius. The Antarctic Mothership hadn't landed on the Moon near its counterpart; in fact, it had steered in completely the opposite direction. Then it had projected a field around itself that seemed to bleed every quark, boson, and other subatomic particles from within, creating a 'depleted vacuum' around the ship, a perfectly frictionless environment…the ship was in fact, 'existing' outside of the light barrier and could jump at a moment to the equivalent of Warp 6; three hundred and ninety two times the speed of light. That translated to roughly a Light-year distance covered per Earth day.

Well, that was pedestrian compared to Slip speeds. But it didn't matter much in the scheme of things since what was needed wasn't to be able to go fast, but to…fight and liberate Earth.

That brought up the fact that they had to first build a shipyard somewhere on Earth without any government getting wind of it, cloak it, equip it to shipyard standards, get holographic Engineers installed, provide the bulk matter for the Industrial Replicator, and only then could a _Defiant_ class be built.

In addition, they didn't know how many Motherships the aliens had in their fleet, how much space they dominated, where their homeworld was, nor what they were planning for Earth, it was all a big unknown. Well, there were two people in Sickbay who could potentially alleviate that unknown a little.

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**DWX Sickbay**

Xander entered Sickbay and his eyes immediately fell on the two unconscious forms lying on neighboring Biobeds. They were dressed in the loose blue sterile patient clothes that 24th C Doctor's usually issued, Xander was pleased to see that the Doc was adopting the nitty gritty of future medical practice as well.

The woman was actually quite attractive, if a little short, her face was soft with no hard lines and a pointed chin with nice lips that complimented her nose in an indefinable way; what people referred to as the 'X' factor. The guy, on the other hand, tall and lanky, his face broad with a permanent dour expression seemingly etched on it.

"Xander," nodded the Doc, staring thoughtfully at a long DNA chain projected on the Multi Function Wallscreen.

"Eh, whatsup Doc?" grinned Xander, anyone would try to find something to laugh about after seeing those sensor scans. Doc Howser rolled his eyes at the Bugs Bunny quip and walked over to a nearby tool tray and picked up two hand-sized leather wallets and handed them over. Xander opened both at the same time and his eyes nearly felt like they wanted to pop out of their sockets. "You're kidding me?!" he demanded.

"Afraid not," said the Doc dryly.

"What on Earth are two freaking FBI agents doing in Antarctica? Climbing out of an alien space ship?"

"I'm a Doctor, not a Clairvoyant," griped Doc Howser frowning irritably at Xander, his mouth twitching afterward somewhat ruined it.

"Been dying to give that line a try haven't you?" smirked Xander.

"Give me a break, I loved Dr McCoy's character on the original show," laughed Doogie. "But getting serious, yes, it seems that we have ourselves a pair of Feds. Special Agent Fox Mulder and the pretty one is Special Agent Dana Scully."

"Ok, what can you tell me medically about them that you think is relevant?"

"I've treated both for the early stages of hypothermia, but what you'll find interesting is Agent Scully's test results. They are…in a word, amazing and has both answered questions and posed even more questions," said the Doc, visibly gathering his thoughts. "I can say with certainty that she was exposed to the alien virus, because you can still find it in her system at this very moment. Scans show that the virus began to break down internal tissue structures and began to grow a cancerous mass within her…but it was arrested with a vaccine administered to her not more than three hours ago before it could be life threatening."

"So obviously someone else took the time and effort to create a vaccine against a highly evolved alien pathogen," mused Xander. "It doesn't seem possible with current medical tech…"

"There is a way to develop a vaccine for something like this currently. You're forgetting how more than half of the medical advances we have today were obtained," said Doc Howser, his expression turning dark.

"Ah, forced human experimentation the Nazis did on all the 'undesirables' during World War 2," said Xander scowling.

"That is one source," nodded the Doc a faint look of disgust on his face. "It's a conflict that every Doctor has to face today when they go through their training. 'Do I make use of a medical technique that was perfected by using an innocent human test subject who died immediately afterward, or do I use what was essentially murder to save a life today? Because if I don't, that life currently on my table will die and I will be guilty of death by negligence.'" The Doc sighed and rubbed his eyes wearily. "If I did not have morals, ethics and did not vow to the Hippocratic oath, then I could conceivably create a vaccine by exposing as many genetically diverse people as possible to this virus. The human immune system is a remarkable thing in many ways, it can adapt to many different forms of bacteria and viruses. We wouldn't be here today without it. Anyway, I would then draw constant blood samples and start to see how the virus reacts to certain individuals…if some show a heightened resistance then I would find a common biological factor and attempt to isolate it. A long process of trial and error later and many deaths…and tada! We have a vaccine." The Doc's face twisted into a bitter anger.

"So clearly someone out there has no morals but is clearly working to fight the aliens," said Xander thoughtfully. "You said that the virus was breaking down this Agent Scully's tissues and a cancerous mass was growing inside her…the vaccine stopped that, but what would've happened had it not been there?"

"Her tissues would continue to break down and the cancerous growth would expand as it happened."

"So the tissue degeneration could be a result of the growth using it as a fuel source for replication," theorized Xander.

"That is the most likely scenario," agreed Doc Howser.

"But this virus is intelligent perhaps even fully sentient, so this cancer growth is result of it 'deciding' to do this."

"Again, likely; given what I observed the virus doing and its complexity."

"Then why? What is the purpose of 'killing' it's host by causing this cancer? Surely it can kill in a more efficient manner like any other 'less evolved' virus?"

"I'm not sure, but I've also found something else unusual in Agent Scully, in the back of her neck is an extremely small chip. It's like nothing I've ever seen…I ran it against the medical database and the closest match I get is a Borg nanoprobe."

"And since she's not a drone and there's only one chip inside her, have you any idea of its function?"

"No, since it's a computer chip, I thought you might take a look at it."

"All right…Doc…what is it?"

"God help us," said Doc Howser suddenly pale, as a revelation seemed to dawn on him. "I might have an answer, not on the chip…the-the other thing…but I need to confirm it. Excuse me…" he started to rush towards his office, but Xander halted him.

"Wait, before you do that…get thorough scans and samples of that vaccine in Agent Scully, I have a feeling we'll be needing it."

"Obviously," said the Doc dryly. Xander left him to his work.

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**DWX Lab**

Researching the life of anyone would merely a decade ago, have involved tedious manual files stored in physically secured locations and if it was stored on computer, then it would be exceedingly primitive and located in those locations as well. Thankfully, a lot had changed since then.

The advent of computerization into all parts of life was happening quite fast. As evidenced by databases compiled by companies on their customers, government records scanned into digital form, computer controlled power and utilities, the rapid spread of the Internet, online banking, financial data and so on.

The most obvious search thread to start on was the FBI; and find the employment file and history of the two Agents in Sickbay. Obviously the FBI mainframe computer system was heavily defended by firewalls and encryption, and by the fact that it wasn't physically connected to the Internet. The FBI Internet site was run off a separate server. It was of little consequence when you had access to a 24th C sensor array and a Computer that utilized bio-neural and isolinear circuitry and measured it's processing power in the trillions of calculations per nanosecond scale.

He found the exact coordinates of the Hoover Building first, and then directed the array to that location and scan for the servers he wanted. He encountered the encryption used and his inner Data found it laughingly easy to break the seven hundred and thirty bit encryption.

He found both Agents' files and transferred them to the DWX computer and to a padd. He next sent out feelers to on the Internet to any credit card companies…a few minutes later he also had the purchases both FBI agents had ever made with their cards. He stopped at that point, since a quick glance at the FBI file showed that it was quite a comprehensive summary of the Agent's lives.

He began to read.

He got more engrossed the more he read…he tapped the padd faster and faster, scrolling page after page.

When he was done he whistled to himself in astonishment. He had new threads to search now and turned his attention back to the Sensor station and began to tap on the controls with a furious pace as only an android could. It would take some doing reconstructing the data since it had all been seemingly erased a few months ago…but deletion subroutines of the current era were very inefficient.

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**DWX Conference Room**

Two days later all the Scoobies had assembled again for the 'debrief' as it were after their actions of the past few days.

"What have you found out about our new 'guests'?" asked Giles intently, his tone getting his irritation across.

"They have a complicated history," said Xander after a moment, glancing at each of the people in the room. "I asked the Doc to keep what he knows about them under wraps because I didn't want anyone to act rashly when they hear it…" He couldn't help but glance at Willow and Joyce when he said that.

He shook his head and decided to get it over with. A push of the button and a holographic flat screen appeared above the table, which showed the front-page summaries in the FBI files of Mulder and Scully. Xander knew the bold letters of 'FBI' that hovered over the ID photos would get instant attention.

Willow gasped. Joyce paled. Angel grimaced. Oz merely frowned slightly. Giles muttered a rather lurid expletive. Cordelia paled as well. T'Jen merely raised an elegant eyebrow in Vulcan manner. Dawn was unsurprised, as she had done some of the infosearch as well.

"Say hello to FBI agents Fox William Mulder and Dana Katherine Scully," began Xander mock dramatically. "And believe it or not we, as in the DWX Scoobies, actually share similar interests and even have a similarity of vocation with them both."

"W-what do you mean?" said Giles.

"Both belong to a very small Investigative unit of the FBI that was started by J. Edgar Hoover himself, called The X-Files. Its purpose is to investigate cases that are seemingly 'paranormal' and unexplainable by conventional science by using non-traditional means and thinking. For example one of their cases involved a series of rather grisly murders where people's livers were torn out with bare hands, what made it unexplainable was that at each crime scene the victims were in locked rooms and no viable point of entry could be determined for the killer. But an elongated fingerprint was found at an extremely narrow vent at one scene measuring no more than six inches by eighteen."

"A _Tortum_ demon, quite rare, they look mostly human but can elongate and twist themselves into nearly any shape," said Giles at once.

"I hate those guys," said Angel blandly, everyone turned to him at that comment. "They creep me out," he explained almost sheepishly.

"And that coming from a vampire, says something," said Xander wryly. "Ok, getting back to our Agents, in the end they ended up killing the demon…apparently he got shredded and mushed by an escalator that was near his nest."

"Nasty," said Oz.

"Quite," agreed Xander, "this case is just the tip of the iceberg of course. But in summary, they've investigated magic related murders; other forms of demons (they don't call them that, merely genetic mutants), and of course our alien 'friends' on the Moon and their activities on our fair planet. Now since they have to file official reports they have to water down and talk between the lines, but its obvious when you know what we know, what they are actually referring to." He brought up a stack of padd's and handed them to each Scooby. "Those are the X-Files, at least those that were digitized on the FBI mainframe, and you can read them at your own leisure. I've included a summary that should get you by if you don't wish to read though the somewhat mind numbing style of some of the reports."

"Getting back to Mulder and Scully themselves, well they seem polar opposites at first glance," said Xander. "In their psych evals Mulder is the open minded, idealist, whilst she is the scientist and skeptic. Now Mulder makes for interesting reading…his involvement started when he was a teenage boy and he witnessed his younger sister being abducted by the aliens…no one believed him. But it's what probably spurred him into his profession…to find her and later to unmask the government conspiracy to hide the existence of ET's. He has First Class Honors from Oxford in Psychology and worked in the FBI Behavioral Science Unit quite successfully and was a brilliant agent until his partner was killed. He became a maverick agent after that before he 'discovered' the X-Files in '91 and reopened them."

"Scully on the other hand, has a Degree in Physics and is a qualified medical doctor, and was recruited by the FBI almost immediately after she finished. She initially instructed at the FBI Academy in Forensic Pathology but was later assigned to partner Mulder in the X-Files to 'provide a sound scientific basis' to his investigations…more likely she was sent to debunk Mulder's work…if you read the files you'll understand why I say that."

"Ok, so we've got an idea now of who they are, but let's look at the here and now," said Doc Howser. "It certainly explains somewhat why they were in that alien Mothership. Agent Scully was infected with the Alien virus and it was slowly eating her alive in laymen's terms. There is a vaccine to the same virus in her blood that is destroying it. She also has a residue on her body that suggests she was placed in some form of advanced liquid immersed stasis that was most likely in use on the Mothership."

"Mulder went to rescue her, and inject her with the vaccine," theorized Willow brightly.

"Perhaps, but his possession of the vaccine is…suspect," said Doc Howser and explained to the group how he theorized the vaccine was made. Willow paled at it, which quickly became a flush of anger when the Doc mentioned the Nazi experiments. "I also finished running a computer simulation of what the virus would do to person infected with it, the scans of Agent Scully were invaluable in that regard. If the virus had finished its work, I think that a person would be totally consumed by it…and…and…" He trailed off and took a deep fortifying breath. "And a newly formed alien would emerge."

The looks of horror and disgust were on every face in the room, even Xander.

"Are you certain of this, Doctor?" said Giles gravely.

"Eighty nine percent certain, at least according to the simulation," said Doc Howser with a wince. "It depends though, as you know the alien virus is sentient…so it must decide to do this. It can also just lie dormant within the body. Add this to the bee farm Xander and Angel reconnoitered as a delivery system for the virus…well I think the term Armageddon comes to mind."

"As if it's not enough we have demons to worry about on that score," said Giles in exasperation, "now we have technologically superior aliens."

"It's almost like we're under siege, humanity I mean," said Joyce in a small voice.

"It seems that way," said Xander with a sigh.

"But we cannot submit to defeat," said Giles suddenly in a strong voice, slamming his hand on the table. "Can you replicate that vaccine, Doctor?"

"I can, but it'll take time, I know the structure of the vaccine, but I have precious little of the alien virus to derive that vaccine from."

"So we need to get you a large amount of the alien virus?" said Xander.

"Essentially."

"We'll start looking," nodded Xander. "Now there's the question of what to do about the Agents?"

"Are they still in need of any medical attention, Doctor?" said Giles.

"No, and I've gotten all the data from Scully that I need."

"Then perhaps we can simply cut them loose near a random transportation terminal."

"We need to know what they saw in that mothership Giles, and what else they know," said Xander intently.

"What can they possibly tell us that our sensors didn't pick up when the mothership left? And we have the X-Files…"

"Not all of them, most of the X-Files were still on hard copy files, but an 'apparent' fire destroyed them," countered Xander, "and the X-Files themselves don't tell the whole story…you know the enormity of the threat, G-man, do you think they would really write down in an official report what they really know about the extent of government collusion with the aliens?"

"How do we know they're not in on it too?" said Angel. "The X-Files might all be simply disinformation."

"It's possible but unlikely," said Dawn. "We've corroborated a lot of the events these X-Files mentions to other independent sources as well."

"This is an opportunity," said Oz.

"You think we should 'co-opt' them?" said Xander in surprise.

"It would be logical," said T'Jen neutrally. "If we simply try to interrogate them without some form of disclosure or trust, they would think us part of the conspiracy. As FBI Agents they have plausible access to 'human intelligence' is the term, which we would not. In return for their assistance…we could help them in their work on the X-Files. They do not need to know of the more relatively 'implausible' resources we have access to."

"Maybe we could approach them as agents of the Watcher's Council," said Dawn…seeing Giles' expression she hurriedly said, "I mean, we don't have to mention them by name…just what they do…you know, fighting the good fight behind the scenes and so forth."

"You're forgetting the resources they have access to," said Giles with a frown, "they could identify us by sketch artist and facial recognition, even if we use aliases."

"I have a way around that," said Xander non-chalantly.

"Well, we're all ears," countered the Watcher.

Xander grinned and began to speak.

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Fox Mulder was a very worried man. He hadn't opened his eyes yet, feigning continued unconsciousness, but his other senses told him that while he wasn't in the middle of the Antarctic tundra anymore, but in an infinitely more comfortable setting…had Scully managed to get them home?

He was ensconced in a bed, that had the rough durable feel of hospital sheets, it was a testament to his life that he had had so many stays in medical wards during the course of his work of the FBI and later the X-Files, that he could identify it by merely feeling the bedding. There was also the smell of the place…that pervasive odor of bleach disinfectant used to clean the places. He heard the hum of car engines, the patter of footsteps, the announcements for doctors to report to this place or that.

His curiosity finally got the better of him and his eyes blinked open. The walls of his room were Spartan and white, with very little adornment. A TV in the far corner was blaring a daily talk show, whilst the light from the window shining through the closed curtains, it seemed to be early morning. His eyes found the other bed a few feet away to his right and he immediately sat up.

"Scully."

No response, she was still sleeping it seemed, and a Saline IV was attached to the back of her hand and providing sustenance directly into her. He stared at the back of his hand and could see the residue of a plaster and a small red puncture wound…he had required it too it seemed. But it made sense that she would need longer to recover…her body had been fighting off that damn virus.

"Greetings, Agent Mulder."

Mulder snapped his head around to see a man standing in the doorway. He stood with impeccable posture and wore a designer gray suit that probably would've cost half the salary he made in year as an FBI Agent. Otherwise the man seemed…ordinary…average height, average build, with short stylish brown hair, parted in the middle. Mulder guessed his age to be just shy of thirty.

"How are you feeling?" asked the man kindly with a smile on his face, walking into the room and closing the door behind him. He was carrying a leather briefcase in his left hand and stood at the foot of his bed. "I asked you a question, Agent Mulder."

Mulder finally seemed to snap himself out of his funk and disorientation. "Fine, thanks. Um, who are you?"

"We will get to that," said the man, his accent was definitely not local…almost British. "But first your partner needs to be in on this conversation we are about to have." He walked over to Scully's bedside and produced out of his briefcase a subdermal injection gun. Mulder was about to rush over and stop him when he said, "Rest assured Mr Mulder, it's nothing but a counteragent to the sedation we put you both under. We thought she could use the extra sleep, but since you're awake…" He placed barrel of the injector against her neck and there was a snapping sound as the contents of the gun shot into Scully.

"It should take about a few minutes, depending whether or not her body decides it needs more rest," said the man, putting the injector back into the briefcase, snapping it closed and walked to the window and peered through the curtains in an almost absent minded manner. "Oh, by the way, your identification in addition to your partner's are in the personal effects drawer to your left. In addition to a change of clothes for the both of you."

Mulder took a note of that but didn't break his gaze on the unknown man, he would have to turn to see if that was the truth…and he didn't trust the seemingly benevolent rescuer.

"That is an extremely good attitude to have, Agent Mulder," said the man approvingly, "never turn your back to a potential adversary, a simple common wisdom…that is unfortunately lacking in this world of ours. It's almost as lacking as those who are open minded…a unique rare breed they are…something you and I have in common."

"How did we get here? Where is here?" asked Mulder.

"I see you are not to be diverted," said the man, "you will not wait for Agent Scully to awake? She deserves the same answers. And I suspect that she needs to see I actually exist…she might not believe you otherwise."

Mulder frowned and was quickly losing his temper…this guy clearly had done some homework on them…whoever he was. "Scully! Wake up!" He threw off his bedsheets, twisted and moved to stand…he winced as his legs protested the movement…how long had they been unconscious?

"Easy there," advised the man.

Mulder regarded his blue hospital pajamas with interest…quite comfortable, and moved over to Scully. "Wakey! Daanaa!" He shoved her shoulder slightly and finally she produced a moan of frustration and rolled over away from him. The man chuckled at this, and Mulder gave him a glare before he tried again.

"What? Hmm, Mulder…" she turned back and her bleary eyes focused on him, "Mulder…why are you over my bed?"

"Scully, we're in hospital…you remember…the bee, my apartment…we were on the ice…"

"Um, oh…oh yes, we were…walking through a dark place, there was water…things were trying to grab us, you pushed me up…then a massive ice field, we ran because it was breaking up, then you fell unconscious…I dragged you…and…" She sat up in alarm and pounced on Mulder in a hug. "Oh my goodness…we're ok…"

"Yes, it seems so," said Mulder softly, unable to resist tenderness from this quarter.

"I remember losing consciousness before we could get away…how…" she finally registered the presence of the 'mysterious' man, with his enigmatic expression.

"The how Agent Scully is we saw you emerge from the ice, your escape from the rising spacecraft was quite death defying…your perseverance is to be commended," said the man with a grin.

"Who are you?!" she said in alarm, breaking the hug from Mulder.

"That is the question of the hour, isn't it?" he laughed. "My name is not important, any name I give you would be useless, an alias, I've got quite a few of them. So tell me which you prefer…Mr Smith, Johnson, Smythe…"

"The truth would be nice," said Mulder snidely.

"Truth takes time, Agent Mulder, and trust…which you two have none of with me, so you can call me Mr E."

"Clever," said Mulder wryly.

"I try," said Mr E condescendingly. He reached into his suitcase again and produced a cellphone sized device and activated it…a pulsing noise pervaded the room briefly and it began flashing a blue light. The TV in the corner of the room abruptly started to show only static. "That takes care of the NSA. Now you are both in Ward 5 of the Maryland Institute, under false names and identities I've taken the liberty to arrange for you. There is also enough cash in the drawer to pay your hospital bill and rent a car. You are free to leave at any time. There is a catch however."

"There always is," said Mulder with a sigh.

"It's the way of things," said Mr E. "If you leave immediately then you will have less than nothing to go to the FBI with to explain your little jaunt in Antarctica, since you requisitioned FBI resources to hire the plane to take you to McMurdo. If you stay and hear me out and answer some question of my own, you can leave here with evidence that the 'Conspiracy' thought was destroyed but wasn't and we can help each other in the future."

"What evidence do you have?" said Mulder, eventually after a long silence.

"What would you say if I had been to certain 'bee farm' in the middle of the desert before their incineration teams destroyed it?" Mr E grinned knowingly.

"I'd say that either you have a deal, or you're part of the same 'Conspiracy' merely trying to yank my chain again…I've had two Conspiracy members turn informants to me, both are dead and gone," said Mulder darkly.

"Oh dear, my chances aren't good then," said Mr E looking slightly troubled, but then smiled. "But lucky for me I'm not a member of the International Conspiracy to organize a planned alien invasion of Earth."

"Then who do you work for?" said Scully rolling her eyes.

"Tsk, tsk, you doubt me when I say that and your partner when he says it…well, those doubts will disappear soon enough," said Mr E. "I will say this…I am part of an organization that has existed since the dawn of the written word…our goal back then as it is now is simple…defend humanity using every knowledgeable means at our disposal. And we have a _lot _of knowledge. Most stemming from sources I doubt even you would believe Agent Mulder." He grinned at them both. "So…what do you say?"

Mulder groaned inwardly…there was still a big chance that this was all just another setup, another manipulation…could an organization really exist dating back that far? He knew of rumors and popular conspiracy theories relating to the Illuminati…the Freemasons and the New World Order…who didn't? But none of them claimed as ancient origin as Mr E claimed his own organization had.

"We'll hear you out, for now," said Mulder, "but if we don't like what we hear, we're outta here. Clear?"

"As crystal, Agent Mulder," said Mr E. "Now, I want to know what you know about the 'Conspiracy'?"

"You seem to know quite a bit already," retorted Mulder.

"I do, but there are limits to what my organization can uncover…we don't really have much in the way of 'hum-int' is the term on the members of the conspiracy…a lot of the evidence only exists in the minds of whoever they are, and sadly I am not a telepath nor a very diligent investigator. Now please…an answer, or we terminate our conversation right now and the evidence goes out the window."

"Very well…" said Mulder.

"Mulder…" interrupted Scully in warning. Mulder cursed inwardly and made a gesture for her to be silent, he couldn't afford her damn skepticism now…not when they both were assuredly facing a Review board when they returned to Washington, and his gut, instinct or whatever you wanted to call it, was telling him that Mr E, while obviously having his own agenda…was actually speaking the truth when he spoke about defending humanity.

"I don't know their real names, only by codenames or nicknames that we've given them, but the 'Conspiracy' as you call it, is actually a Syndicate of global interests…an assemblage of powerful former government leaders and international businessmen. It began after the Roswell UFO crash, when an ultrasecret conference of powerbrokers in the US, Soviet Russia, Britain, China, France, West and East Germany signed a treaty of cooperation with regards to the alien spacecraft and any technology gained from it."

"Eventually, these men broke off from their parent governments and became independent…using their knowledge of extraterrestrial life and reverse engineered technology to further their own agenda."

"Such men today would be quite old, they'd be in their sixties and seventies," mused Mr E.

"Yes, but the power they wield is almost absolute," said Mulder darkly. "They walk the corridors of the FBI with impunity…I'd not be surprised to find that any other government agency can become their stomping ground at a whim. They make use of contracted agents who operate above the law to persecute the Syndicate's agenda."

"The agenda being the planned Armageddon of the alien invasion…with the alien virus in bees as a delivery system," said Mr E, staring at Scully pointedly. "You can be very glad Agent Scully that your partner found a vaccine…otherwise you'd be very dead. Our Doctors estimate you had but another twenty hours left before even that vaccine wouldn't have saved your life."

Scully apparently didn't know what to say and merely settled for giving a thankful glance at Mulder…despite her reservations of what she was hearing.

"But what I don't understand Agent Mulder…is why? Why is the Syndicate, human beings, contributing to the end of their and our own race?"

"They're not…well, not really," said Mulder with a sigh, shaking his head, remembering what Well Manicured Man had told him before he had committed suicide by climbing in his own limo and activating a car bomb. "The Syndicate, while power hungry in their greed for alien technology and control over global interests, power and money, are only pretending to play along with the Alien Colonists. The vaccine is the Syndicate's creation…they assist the alien's as a means to an end, to buy time."

"To develop the vaccine?"

"Yes," nodded Mulder, "its taken them forty years to do it at the cost of I don't know how many people's lives. But I don't think they're planning to distribute to the whole world…only their little elite cadre will get it while they allow the rest of us to become mindless slaves with the alien essence in our blood, controlling us."

"But I bet the aliens didn't tell them about the virus mutating and using the body to fuel a gestation of a new EBE," said Mr E grimly.

"Well, I can't say for sure, but I imagine they were rather shocked," said Mulder. "Their other goal is an order from the Aliens, that they must attempt to create an alien/human hybrid…for what purpose I don't know…but I've seen the aliens shapeshifting, heal themselves and others in seconds, pick up a grown man as if he was a feather; so a hybrid would have all that."

"Perhaps they intend them as soldiers…"

Mr E frowned in thought, looking troubled and then seemingly nodded to himself. He opened the briefcase again and produced two enclosed plastic cylinders one long the other short and placed it on the food table used by the patient to eat; the short cylinder was filled to the brim with dead bees, the long one held a mash of plant material, stalks from the polygenic wheat field. He next also produced what was a new model Nokia mobile phone next to flashing jammer device and closed his briefcase again.

"What can you tell me about the individual Syndicate members?"

"The member Scully and I've most run into is Cigarette Smoking Man or Cancer Man," said Mulder scowling at the mere mention of that SOB.

"Named as such because he has a fondness of smoking I assume?" said Mr E wryly.

"He's like a Morley brand chimney," said Mulder matter-of-factly. "Sometimes I knew he was at a scene simply by seeing the discarded cigarette butts. He's the Syndicate's primary North American enforcer and liaises between them and the US government. He's a former special ops officer at Fort Bragg in 1962, and was a deadly assassin doing black ops work when he was seemingly made to disappear from all records. Some…friends of mine believe he was involved in both Kennedy and King assassinations after that."

"So you would say he has the dirt on a lot of the Syndicate's schemes?" said Mr E, his eyes narrowing.

"Oh yes," said Mulder emphatically. "We've met three others, but they're not an issue since they're dead. We also think that the Syndicate leader…who would know everything, is a Nazi war criminal and scientist who can't enter the United States…he's living somewhere abroad."

"No name?" asked Mr E.

"Nope, sorry," said Mulder.

"Well, my organization has extensive documentation on the Nazis since they were so heavily involved in using or trying to use the occult to further the Third Reich…perhaps a deductive analysis can pinpoint who this individual is," mused Mr E, who then glanced at his watch. "I think it time I take my leave of you…Agent Scully, Agent Mulder…it was good to meet you and hopefully this is the beginning of a fruitful partnership. I have a feeling that it's perhaps one on which the fate of our race might depend."

Mr E pointed at the blinking jammer device…or at least that's what Mulder assumed it was. "This I will leave with you…when you want to have a conversation that no one could possibly detect, via electronic or other means…push the button. It has a radius of ten meters." He then pointed to the Nokia. "This is a secure phone which you can use to reach me. Its' impossible to trace, bug, triangulate or intercept."

"How is that possible?" asked Scully. "The NSA can intercept any electronic transmission…"

"Let's just say that the technology the phone uses isn't…conventional, Agent Scully, and leave it at that. And please don't try to have anyone you know with a more technical background try to open it or pick it apart. Not unless you wish them to lose their eyebrows and any facial hair they may have when the devices self-destruct."

"As I was saying, if you want to contact me, enter the number '78278735' and press dial," he handed Mulder a card with the number on, "please memorize this and destroy it. Oh, the Infrared port doubles as a fingerprint scanner…only you and Agent Scully can use the phone. Again if someone other than you tries to use it, it will blow up in their hands."

"If goodness forbid you should lose or have both devices confiscated, you can get to any other phone and dial the same number, when it picks up, say one word, '_Qa'pla_'," Mr E grinned shamelessly at the obvious Star Trek Klingon phrase. "I will then also know to get in touch with you."

Mr E inclined his head to them and walked towards the door. "Good luck at your review." And with that he exited the room and disappeared from view.

"That was a risky move, Mulder," said Scully softly.

"I know." He picked up the flashing Jamming device curiously. It's weight was negligible, rather amazing for what it could do. He pushed the button and immediately the TV in the corner resumed its normal operation. Picking up the Nokia phone it also looked utterly unremarkable despite being the latest model. It was already powered on and showing that it was connected to a network…its power was at full. That reminded him that he'd need to get a charger cable for this specific model. "But with this…" he gestured at the evidence cylinders, "we might have a chance for even reopening The X-Files."

"If that is the actual bees and stalks from that field we were in," said Scully pointedly. Mulder activated the Jammer again before saying.

"Our new 'friend' knows too much and if he was a member of the Syndicate he's just signed his own death warrant by giving us this evidence, Scully," countered Mulder. "You don't know this yet, but when you were abducted after being stung by that bee I was contacted by the British Syndicate member. He basically defected when he learned of what the alien virus was actually going to do; he handed me that vaccine…so I could save you, for the sake his own children. The instant he was done he committed suicide."

Scully sighed and moved to get out of bed. "We'll talk more later…let's get out of here…"

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Mr E stood on the roof of the building opposite the Maryland Institute and saw how Mulder and Scully emerged hurriedly from the front entrance and walked out of the hospital grounds. They called for a cab and got in and the vehicle merged into the traffic flow.

"Did it work?" asked Giles, moving to stand next to Mr E.

"Yes, we have an understanding, I've also got more specifics on the conspiracy," said Mr E.

"Enough to begin?"

"Yes," nodded Mr E. "We have two leads to pursue and hopefully the two intrepid Agents will keep us apprised of anything they dig up in the future."

"Good, it's about time we made some positive headway on this front. There are other matters to deal with as well."

"Vamp activity picking up again?"

"Angel says he killed two last night."

"That's easy pickings, we're not even halfway through summer yet, by the way, have you kept Buffy up to speed on events?"

"I met her yesterday, she's understandably flummoxed about this whole alien 'bad guy' business," said Giles. "Then again, I'm still not sure I've taken it all in yet myself." His tone was as dry as sand.

"We'll need her in the future against the alien's, she's the Chosen One, defender and champion of humanity after all," said Mr E with an easy grin.

"Not so much as we'll need you," countered Giles.

Mr E shrugged and both men walked out of sight only to disappear in a twinkle of blue light.

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**DWX Lab**

The bottle of champagne was lifted and turned over, abruptly it rose into the air, swung with tireless holographic arms and came back down, where it abruptly broke with high snapping sound, and the liquid inside burst upon the sharp hull of the newly christened _Alpha Flyer_. The audience, hologram and humanoid alike that had worked on the new ship burst into spontaneous applause and exchanged satisfied handshakes and even hugs in one or two cases.

"Amazing job everyone," said Geordi, carefully lowering the remains of the large bottle after the din had died down. "This is a huge accomplishment, but it's only the first small step…and unfortunately, we can't rest now. There's still a planet to save."

"Hear, hear," said Giles.

"To that end, Xander has an announcement," said Geordi, beckoning Xander to take his place standing in front of the _Flyer_ and address everyone.

"As Geordi said, this is…huge," said Xander with a grin. "But we must go forward, thus far, this campus has housed everything that we've been working on…but now that must change. As G-man would say, 'We have too many eggs in one basket.'" Xander had actually modified his voice to an exact replica of Giles when he spoke. The Watcher gave a gimlet eye stare in retaliation. "Therefore, we have to create a secondary DWX. Its location will be critical, as this is where we will also be building bigger ships…it must be isolated, in a remote area…where the local government can be easily made to look the other way and where the Alien Colonists do not have much interest in."

"Is there such a place?" said Oz.

"Yes, in the mountains bordering the Skeleton Coast in Namibia," nodded Xander.

"Africa?" said Willow a bit dubiously.

"It's the best place we could find matching all the conditions we need," said Dawn. "There's a specific valley forty miles inward from the South Atlantic coast that is surrounded by mountains on all sides. We will begin to build cloaking field generators with micro-fusion plants that will form a Phase Cloak all over the entire four mile length of the valley…making it look like nothing at all is happening out of the ordinary…even if someone was to walk through the valley they'd be in the wrong phase and would walk straight through anything that we build there none the wiser."

"Once that is done, we can begin infrastructure development; shields, shipyard, housing, etc."

"Xander there are too few of us to do all that," said Giles in astonishment.

"G-Man, how did you think we finished the _Flyer_?" asked Xander rhetorically, gesturing to the holograms.

"Oh," said Giles blinking.

"However, we poor flesh, blood and mechanical beings will have to do the initial work of setting up the Cloak and Holographic field generator in the valley. From that point Geordi has volunteered to lead the current and new Engineering teams we will program to begin work there."

"You're welcome," said Geordi with a smile.

"So when are you gonna fly that thing?" asked Cordelia, as nonchalantly as possible, studying her nails.

"That is another reason why we held this gathering," said Xander, this time he gestured to T'Jen and she began to speak.

"We need to know the status and disposition of species within our region of space," she explained. "To achieve this, Xander, Dawn, and I will take the_ Alpha Flyer_ out in two days to make a reconnaissance cruise of the systems where we believe there is sentient life, we will begin with Andoria, Vulcan and then Tellar…then move on to the other possibilities. Thanks to the Slip drive I estimate our mission will take no more than two days to a week, depending on what we might encounter."

"But…but…" said Willow, her face scrunching in consternation. Oz hugged her and nodded that he understood.

"I realize that you wished to be on the first flight of the _Alpha Flyer,_ Willow, Oz," said T'Jen, a slight hint of empathy leaking into her voice. "But there is no telling what we will encounter out there. There will be no rescue or backup if something goes wrong. Therefore, only those with the experience, memory, and training of Starfleet Academy can go. As Jonathan Archer would say…you don't have your 'space legs' yet. Until we know more, it's safer for you to stay on Earth."

"I have to admit that it's a bit of a relief actually," said Giles, breathing a slight sigh. "I very much like to keep two feet on Terra firma, thank you very much. Oh, I'll go if you really need me out there it's just…"

"We get it G-man," said Xander with shake of the head.

"There's too much healing here to do on Earth anyway, before I can go explore with a clear conscious anyway," said Doc Howser sadly, "however, like Giles, if I'm needed specifically I'll go."

"Well, I'm just an middle aged art gallery owner," said Joyce with self-deprecating shrug. "Not much call for that in the galaxy I imagine."

"We can't just let you uncool people out into the galaxy," said Cordelia haughtily. "Therefore, I de…would appreciate if you started a Starfleet short semester education program or something."

"Cordy, are you actually volunteering to learn…that high level science and all that…" said Xander in astonishment.

"Of course," said Cordelia with a frown, "if there's one thing that I'm good at, then it's seeing a trend…and I think that in the future, those of us with this knowledge are gonna be in high demand…which equals lots of…reward."

Xander snorted…typical Cordy. Give her bigger ears, brown skin and big lobes, she'd be a perfect Ferengi.

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Xander settled himself in the forward Pilot station of the _Alpha Flyer_, it had all the same control layouts of the original Delta version, but instead of the superfluous Captain Proton inspired controls to the pilot's right was a holographic 3D interface panel. Situated above him was the Tactical Station to his left, and Engineering to his right, occupied by T'Jen and Dawn respectively. Both stations made use of a combination of standard touchpad controls and holographic interface.

He looked down from the view out the front viewports, which showed nothing but the wall of the lab.

"Begin checklist. Thrusters?"

"Online," replied Dawn.

"Internally metered pulse drive?"

"Powered up and in the green." The Flyer began to resonate with a hum as one of its main systems came online.

"Slip drive and quantum induction core?"

"Activated and cycling…ready."

"Tactical systems?"

"Armor generators, regenerative shields and Phase cloak are online and ready," said T'Jen, tapping her controls and manipulating the holographic controls hovering in mid-air over her panel. "Torpedoes and Thasers report nominal."

The Thaser was what the Scoobies had agreed to call the beam weapon used by the Borg. Visually, it fired a green beam that lanced instantly across space to intersect its target. Scientifically, the beam was actually a contained stream of modulated theta radiation, which could be easily adjusted into different frequencies and wavelengths. Such a weapon was only possible due to the ZP power core of the Flyer. A M/AM reactor while also powerful could only react so much before you ran into containment problems.

"Ok, here we go," said Xander, feeling the excitement of the moment finally hit him. "Engage Cloak."

The _Alpha Flyer_ seemed to blur for a moment and then simply vanished.

"Xander to Giles, you see us out there?"

"_No, you're invisible_," confirmed the Watcher, who was standing on the far side of the lab.

"Good, open the roof."

The roof of the warehouse building seemed to simply split and fold inward as the actuators slowly brought the sections out of the way, and the Flyer saw the open starlit evening sky for the first time.

"This is the _Alpha Flyer_, see you soon."

The Flyer rose out of the lab structure and pointed its sharp nose skyward and shot off, going from zero to eighteen thousand kilometers per second or one quarter impulse. Of course, since the Flyer was out of phase, this meant that there was no reaction by the atmosphere to the sudden maneuver. If the three Scoobies had wanted to they could fly through the Earth and come out the other side, but that was rather pointless. In moments, the Flyer reached orbit and headed out into interplanetary space.

"All systems nominal, increasing speed to half impulse," reported Xander, adjusting his holo-controls. The _Flyer_ now moved to thirty seven thousand kilometers per second with no problems. They continued moving impulse up incrementally, performing diagnostics as they went at each new power level, since technically this was a shakedown cruise for the _Alpha Flyer_.

"Full Impulse," said Xander.

The Flyer now coasted at its maximum rated sublight speed…a quarter of the speed of light.

"Any problems, ladies?"

"Nope," said Dawn with an excited grin.

"Nothing to report," said T'Jen stoically.

"Ok, plotting a course for Andoria…" said Xander, his hands beginning to blur at the holo-controls, and on the small viewer a sector diagram of their route took shape. "Vectoring…"

The _Alpha Flyer_ slowed somewhat and then turned gracefully toward the galactic rim, pointing its nose on a slightly upward Z axis towards the it's target.

"Engaging deflector…field looks good…slipstream in 5…"

Blue energies began to blossom on the nose of the Flyer, beginning to slowly snake backward along the angular hull of the craft as it began to manipulate and warp the fabric of space-time on a quantum level.

"…4…3…2…1…"

The _Alpha Flyer_ stretched forward into near infinity with a snap, for a brief moment the ship had seemed to consist only of the energies it was manipulating…stars vanished…to be replaced with a seemingly neverending blue tunnel of circular subspace, that sped past the small ship.

"Andoria here we come!"

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_A/N: Yeah! How'dya like at? Nitpick: In Star Trek 3:SFS when Kirk steals Enterprise out of Spacedock…he gives the command 'one quarter impulse power'. As you've seen here, that's 18000kms…Kirk&Co and Enterprise should've destroyed 'emselves the instant he gave that order. Spacedock in 23__rd__ C is 3km interior width. Ouch. _


	11. Chapter 11 Gibson

**Chapter 11 - Gibson**

**Conference Room, DWX, Sunnydale**

Xander Harris groaned and collapsed onto the comfortable chair at the head of the large table. He knew he that technically he was not tired, though his soul felt otherwise. Spending just under a week in the relatively cramped quarters of the _Alpha Flyer_ would just about tire anyone. Sure it gave him some time alone with Dawn and much fun was had in the rear compartment of the ship, but soon enough the discoveries on their mission put a dampener on the mood. Even T'Jen, despite the fact that she wouldn't admit it, looked slightly strained around her eyes and spent a lot of time in meditation when she was not on a duty shift.

Another reason why it became a strain was because they couldn't risk beaming down to investigate anything they had detected. If they were spotted, well, that would be several orders of magnitude in badness; because it would eventually get back to the Alien Colonists and they would know that somehow humanity had developed FTL power right under their noses and take – steps – to deal with the threat.

So they were limited to doing detailed scans under Cloak.

His musings were interrupted when Giles stormed in; they had gotten back just after midnight whilst everyone was asleep and as such had decided to get some shuteye, and in Dawn's case – regeneration, while the going was good.

Xander had gotten two hours in, but his state of mind was such that he couldn't get a full six hours. So he had compiled and collated the scans from the _Alpha Flyer_ to present to the Scoobies.

"Xander! Is everything all right? No one hurt?" said Giles near frantically, shaking the androids' shoulders.

"Fine, fine, G-man," said Xander wryly, guiding the Watcher to a chair. "The ship performed wonderfully, we just had to do a little fine tuning here and there, but she's had her shakedown now and technically the Flyer would now be fully certified in Starfleet."

"I take it you discovered quite a lot on your journey?"

"To an extent, it'll have to wait though for everyone to arrive, it's going to be a long one. Oh, by the way, how far have you guys gotten on preparations for Namibia?"

"We've finished constructing the cloak generators and their power sources, its just the holo generator that's left, the engineers say at least another week, since the thing has to be able to cover the entire valley."

"That's excellent," nodded Xander, "it's our next priority…we will need the ships. So has anything happened here while we were away?"

"We had two clients visiting, we showed them the fake lab and so forth."

Xander nodded; the fake lab was in one of the buildings on the eastern part of the campus, it held all current twenty first century equipment that you would expect a high tech research firm to have. All the machinery worked of course, and it was used to produce some of the gadgets and inventions that was marketed and licensed to the companies they worked with.

"Who?"

"Eriksson; for the mobile phone miniaturizing and Sony for the LCD screens, their representatives were suitably impressed. The Sony rep was rather astonished that we could make an LCD screen so large, yet let the weight remain low and be more power friendly."

"Indeed, well it definitely gives them a leg up over Fujitsu and Pioneer's plasma screen systems," grinned Xander.

"You do realize that we're rather inconveniencing their competition?"

"Of course, but not beyond where they can't play catch-up in a year or so," said Xander waving away the concern. "How's Buffy?"

"Oh yes, she uncovered a group of demons in LA kidnapping and using the homeless people coming to a Shelter; for slave labor in another dimension, a dimension in which one Earth day equals a hundred years there."

"I take it she opened a can of whupass on them all?" said Xander with a hard voice.

"Quite," nodded Giles. "The portal was also sealed permanently when she rescued all of the people and killed the demon responsible for opening it."

"Good, I wonder though…as this demonstrates, demons don't just confine their activities to the hellmouth."

"I see where you are going with this," nodded Giles. "The Watcher's Council, while its primary mandate is to 'support' the Slayer and train other potential Slayers, has other operatives…"

"The Wet Work teams?" said Xander stoically, raising an eyebrow.

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that you know of them," said Giles ruefully. "Yes, however, they only handle the 'small' problems; a vampire infestation here, a demon on a killing spree there. Operating on a hellmouth is not something that they do well; since the casualties they suffer would be too high…demons here gain greater strength than they would farther away."

"Because of the dimensional weakness," nodded Xander.

"Yes, as such only a Slayer is really equipped to handle the threats here in Sunnydale."

"Speaking of which, did Angel manage his break in to the police station?"

"He wasn't caught," nodded Giles, "the files are gone with no one the wiser and Willow has hacked the police and school computer systems. All that remains is modifying the appropriate memories."

"We'll do that within the week, I'm sure Buffy will be grateful to get out of that crappy apartment and into someplace better until the summer is over."

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When the Scoobies had all arrived and all the requisite greetings and welcome back's had been exchanged, everyone sat down as Xander, Dawn and T'Jen began their report on what they had seen in the local region of space around Earth.

"Our reconnaissance of local space was quite interesting and insightful, and if you thought that the task ahead of us, just liberating Earth from the Alien Colonists is great, it seems we will have to do the same for the other races in our region."

Xander tapped a few buttons and a holo of great ice planet of Andoria appeared.

"On Andoria there are no subspace signatures or technology, and approximately three billion life signs but all over the planet…is this," he tapped a button.

"Another Tachyon network?" said Willow incredulously.

"Yes, and again, there is a Colonist Mothership on a nearby moon keeping watch on the System with smaller Saucers flitting about it," said Xander. "However, before you think that this is a mirror of Earth, we detected the Colonist virus inside all the beings on that planet. So we can safely deduce that it's fully under Colonist control."

"We moved on to Vulcan next, T'Jen."

A holo of Vulcan appeared over the table and T'Jen stood: "There are barely three million life signs on Vulcan, scans indicate that there was a major conflict there within the last two hundred years. There are indications of orbital bombardment and nuclear detonations. In addition to numerous debris and wreckages of spacecraft in orbit; Vulcan and Colonist."

"We believe that the Vulcans resisted conquest quite successfully, however, they paid a heavy price, the Nuclear winter from the conflict is only now beginning to lift," explained Xander.

"What's their technological level now?" asked Giles.

"They probably still have the knowledge to build starships and warp drive etc., but are centuries away from regaining their status as a spacefaring race, due to the devastation," said Dawn.

"Next we went to Tellar," said Xander, his face growing sad. The next holo to be displayed showed the Tellarite System in its entirety. He pointed to a belt of asteroids in orbit around the Primary at two A.U.s distance. "That is all that's left of Tellar Prime…there are no Tellarites in this Universe. Again, we can thank the fucking Colonists; we found debris amongst the asteroids consistent with a Mothership. The shape of the asteroids indicates that it was no natural phenomenon that gave rise to them, and we found carbon scoring on them indicative of matter disruptors."

"They destroyed an entire planet?!" squeaked Willow. "Why?"

"Tellarites are a very belligerent species," said T'Jen stoically. "They would never accede to any invader."

"So the Colonists decided to get rid of them," said Angel grimly.

"It seems that is the case," said T'Jen.

"We then encountered the first good news on our next stop, in the Xyrillian System, now they're not mentioned in any of the current shows, but only because they joined the Federation fifty years after its founding and didn't really play a major role; though they did bring crucial concepts of matter-energy manipulation to Federation science that would later enable things like Holodecks and Replicators to come about," explained Xander.

"We found they are space faring, with Warp drive and all that, but their ships seem to stick to their home system, and they only send out Stealth ships to do anything like exploring outside of it," said Dawn. "We tracked one leaving at Warp 3."

"Are they friendly?" asked Cordelia.

"Oh yes, a pleasant race," said Xander earnestly. "Hardly an ounce of xenophobia in them."

"Are there any signs of Colonists in their system?" asked Giles.

"None," said Xander, shaking his head. "Either they successfully resisted, or the Colonists don't know they are there. Their Stealth technology is quite impressive, and while it doesn't come close to ours I believe it would enable them to effectively hide."

"Will they be able to help us?" asked Angel.

"Xyrillians don't really like to fight, it's not in their nature," said Dawn. "They have weapons; we passively picked up anti-matter missiles, lasers and early mark deflector shields on their ships, but I don't think it would be much of a contest between them and say a Colonist Mothership."

"Ok, next we went to Draylax, about twelve light-years away," said Xander, he coughed uncomfortably; Dawn grinned in amusement at her boyfriend's reaction. The holo changed again to show the planet in question. "There is a civilization of four billion beings here at a roughly pre-industrial stage of development, as such they probably have not attracted Colonist attention yet. The fact that they are pre-industrial is a difference in our Universe…in the Trek Universe, the Draylax developed Warp Drive just fifty years ago, here something has held back their development."

"Following that, Denobula Triaxa, thirty-two light-years from Earth," said T'Jen. "The Denobulans were one of the first races to join the Federation after its formation by Humans, Andorians, Tellerites and Vulcans. They are known for their superior medical technology and rather prodigious mating habits. We scanned eleven billion dominant life forms on their planet, however, they are under Colonist surveillance and there is a Tachyon grid over their world but no indication of the virus, in that respect they are much like Earth. They should already have Warp Drive, but again, no anti-matter, subspace or anything of the kind was scanned; they are in a Post-Industrial stage. The Colonists may be responsible for this."

"Subtly infiltrating and influencing or suppressing scientific advances, so that no one becomes a threat," said Giles with nod of understanding.

"Indeed," nodded T'Jen. "We next traveled to Betazed, and like Tellar, there was nothing but an asteroid field." Willow looked very unhappy to hear that, Xander recalled her geeking out about Counselor Troi when they were younger; how cool it would be to have telepathic abilities.

"We visited Bolia next, you know the usually pleasant people with the blue skin and a single ridge going through their face," said Dawn. "It seems that evolution didn't work there or they became extinct, as there are no dominant lifeforms, only a Class M environment with microbes…it's an empty world."

"What about the species that have been the traditional enemies of the Federation? Do they exist here?" asked Oz.

"The Romulan Star Empire does not exist," said T'Jen with a raised eyebrow. "It seems in this Universe they were not successful in their journey after their exile from Vulcan. The planet known as Romulus houses the pre-warp civilization known as the Remans, they are not under observation by the Colonists and we detected none of their ships."

"The last stop we had on our journey was Qo'nos, the Klingon homeworld, they are also spacefaring and have an empire, but it only encompasses a two sectors of space, their ships are as yet still only armed with nuclear missiles, and early mark lasers, disruptors and shields…though their fleet strength is significant," said Xander.

"So in essence, you're saying that the only races we can possibly ally with in the short term is the Xyrillians and maybe the Klingons," said Giles grimly.

"Perhaps, however the Klingons are too far away, their ships would take a year to get here at their current warp capability," said Dawn with a sigh.

"We believe however, that a more meaningful and significant ally would be this race," said Xander, he tapped a sequence and the holo changed to show visual sensor footage of a vicious space battle.

"Are those two Colonist Motherships firing at each other?" said Willow in confusion.

"Yes," nodded Xander. "We detected this battle as we were returning from Reman space, this battle took place forty light-years from Earth."

As he finished speaking one of the Motherships got a critical hit and exploded in a massive flash as its artificial singularity lost containment and vaporized the ship around it. The victorious mothership was damaged though and slowly turned and headed away from the battlespace.

"We were able to get good scans of that ship, and followed it for a couple of hours as they were making repairs to its FTL. The lifeforms aboard are almost consistent with Colonist lifesigns like those on the Moon, however, we detected no signs of the virus in this particular mothership."

"So they are not a united race," said Doc Howser musingly. "It also suggests that the virus is actually what is the aggressive element here."

"Yes, when this ship repaired its FTL we followed it as best we could and eventually tracked back to their homeworld; just a light year away from the battle, in what we humans call the Zeta Reticuli system."

"Amazing," said Oz. "It's always been thought that Reticuli was the Roswell Grays home system."

"So we actually now have a good idea of what our enemy looks like, if they are similar to the Reticulans."

"So we're actually fighting those big headed, big almond black eye aliens?" asked Corderlia in astonishment.

"It seems that's the case."

"We will have to be very careful about how we do this," said Giles tensely.

"Relax, G-man, we really can't do anything like gathering allies until our own planet is sorted out," said Xander with a chuckle. "This was a strictly recon mission, and we'll only have more of the same in the future, there are a lot more places and races to check out; the Bajorans, Trill, Benzites, Bynars, Efrosians, Ferengi and _urgh_, the Cardassians."

"Maybe the Colonists have done us all a favor and knocked those snakeheads into the Stone Age," said Dawn with an unpleasant look on her face.

"Either way, we have to find out eventually," said Xander; he had to admit to being biased against the Cardies, in the Trek Universe, they had betrayed the entire Alpha Quadrant by allying themselves with the Dominion and were responsible for the deaths of millions of people. He shook his head to clear it of the vivid memories of the War threatening to bubble forth and sternly reminded himself that here, in this universe, the Cardassians if they existed hadn't done anything wrong…yet.

The meeting was interrupted when Xander felt his communicator vibrate in his pocket.

"Excuse me, it seems that we're getting our first call from our new FBI friends."

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**Camelback View Motel, Phoenix, Arizona**

Special Agent Fox Mulder hung up the 'special' mobile phone and stared at it. In all the time since the mysterious Mr E had given him the thing, it had not needed a recharge, it just kept going and going. Scully thought that either it used a new type of battery that hadn't been released to the market yet, or well, she didn't want to voice her other opinion – that he was secretly recharging the thing to just yank her chain.

He placed the phone in his coat and re-entered their room. His eyes immediately fell on the diminutive slightly chubby form of the young Gibson Praise lying down on the double bed where Scully was busy attending to the child with the skill and grace of a medical professional. Seeing Gibson again and in this state after he had been kept in the 'tender' graces of Cancer Man was seriously putting a strain on his self-control; the dark urge to put a bullet through the head of that chain smoking son of a bitch was near overwhelming.

Gibson had blood stained bandages crowning his head, from the exploratory surgery that Cancer Man had done to the boy…the boy that could be the key to everything in the X-Files, because Gibson Praise had the very real ability to read people's minds like an open book. And while most would think this a wonderful gift to aspire to have, to people like Cancer Man, Gibson represented a dire threat; since the boy could pluck their thrice-damned secrets right out of their skulls.

It also meant that it marked Gibson as an object for scientific study. Mulder shook his head in dark disbelief, that there were still medical doctors who could throw away their Hippocratic Oath so brutally, was also putting the desire in his mind to put a bullet through their heads.

"What did he say?" asked Scully, after cutting away the last of Gibson's bandages. Mulder winced at the sight of the stitches holding together the wounds from the surgery; they were red and inflamed.

"He's on his way with a Doctor of theirs, who he assures me takes his Hippocratic Oath very seriously," said Mulder.

"I still think it would be better to get Gibson to a hospital."

"Scully, you know better, those SOBs would find Gibson and abduct him again, in a chaotic hospital you can't watch over him 24/7."

Scully sighed visibly, obviously conceding the point and helped Gibson to sit up and stuffed pillows behind the boy to make him more comfortable.

"Frankenstein? Really?" said Gibson, speaking in a slightly amused tone. He had obviously just heard a thought of Scully's; regarding the way his head looked.

"No. No, you've been worked on by some good doctors. They did a fine job with your stitches," said Scully trying to reassure the boy, but her thoughts betrayed her.

"You think they were butchers," said Gibson, his tone changing to a world-weary one that had no business coming from a child.

"They were butchers," said Mulder, feeling his jaw tense.

"They should have changed your bandages, Gibson. You've got some swelling and some infection and you've got a fever. Why did they do this to you?" She switched to the blunt truth.

"'Cause I can read people's minds," said Gibson obviously.

"How did you get in our car?" asked Mulder curiously.

"When they weren't looking, I snuck away. It's easy when you know what they are thinking."

"Why are you here?"

"They were using me 'cause I can communicate with it," said Gibson earnestly.

"Communicate with what?" asked Scully.

"You already know," said Gibson sadly. "You just don't want to believe it."

Scully found his eyes and he instantly knew that she wanted to speak to him out of earshot of Gibson; it's the kind of thing you develop after six years with a partner. He didn't understand why she bothered though; Gibson would instantly pick up on anything they talked about. She stood from the bed and walked over to him and pulled him into a corner of the room.

Their impending conversation was interrupted however, when three knocks sounded on the door. Both Mulder and Scully drew their weapons instantly and she headed to another corner of the room with a proper field of fire on the door, whilst Mulder hesitantly approached off to one side and opened it a fraction, keeping his body behind the solid wall next to it. A glance through it and he visibly relaxed somewhat and gave a signal with a free hand to Scully to stand down.

He opened the door fully to reveal Mr E, standing in a gray suit and with his customary leather briefcase in hand.

"Agent Mulder," greeted Mr E, and gestured behind him to another man standing on the porch. He looked just as old as Mr E, with smooth dark black hair, green eyes and a pleasant face. His clothing suggested he was more laid back; casual jacket, white slacks and shirt. He carried a large dark gray case with him that had the red cross emblazoned on it. "This is Dr H, he is our organization's Doctor in this part of the world."

"Pleased to meet you, Agent Mulder," said Dr H.

Mulder narrowed his eyes evaluating the doctor further and stepped away from the door, allowing both men entrance.

"How did you get here so quickly?"

"We were in the neighborhood," said Mr E vaguely. "The accident at the nuclear plant caught our attention. Amazing the speed with which one can move these days."

Mulder's attention from this was diverted when Dr H sat down next to Gibson and smiled comfortingly at the young boy; and amazingly…Gibson smiled back, and not only that a look of wonder seemed to slip over the former chess prodigy's features.

"Hello, Gibson, I'm Dr H, how are you feeling?" said the doctor, which showed he had an extremely good beside manner. Gibson didn't answer, he seemed speechless. Dr H chuckled at this. "I'm sure my mind is a fascinating place, Gibson. But please, I need an answer."

"Um…yes, um, my head's sore and I feel hot," said Gibson eventually.

"No doubt," nodded Dr H, and turned his attention to Scully. "Agent Scully, a pleasure, what can you tell me?"

Scully started speaking but most of it went over Mulder's head as she spoke in almost pure medical terminology. Dr H nodded and his face grew progressively angrier as he listened.

"Barbarians," snarled Dr H, "I'd like to get the doctors who did this and this Cancer Man on my table and give them a skull exploratory, see how they like it." He opened his medical case and produced a smaller version of the injection gun that Mr E had used when they first met him. He placed a small glass vial inside it, loading it almost like a bullet; it made a small whine of pressure. "Ok, Gibson, I'm going to inject you with an antibiotic specifically targeted for your head, in laymen's terms. It's going to sting a little. Ok?"

"Ok," nodded Gibson, smiling at the doctor widely, who placed the injector on the boy's neck. There was hissing sound and just like that it was over. Scully looked impressed. Dr H now began the familiar physical exam by feeling specific points on Gibson. He then pulled from his medical case two devices; one was an earpiece, the other a cellphone sized device which he put on Gibson's chest. "It's just a fancy stethoscope," said Dr H, listening intently to the earpiece.

Gibson grinned shaking his head, obviously at something he was picking up from the Doctor's thoughts. How Mulder now wished he had Gibson's ability?

"So Agent Mulder, how did it go with the review board?" said Mr E.

"Bad, the board kept the X-Files shut down," said Mulder grouchily.

"And the evidence I gave you didn't help at all?"

"Oh, it convinced them that its merely a virus that somebody was going to use for terrorism purposes, the ET angle just doesn't penetrate into their thick skulls," said Mulder, giving a peeved glance at Scully. "My partner's tests show somewhat confusingly that the virus is very much of this Earth."

"Well, she's both right and wrong," said Mr E. "Our own further analysis shows that as well, but it doesn't mean that these are not 'aliens'. If this virus evolved here when we think it did then it means that they evolved when Earth was compatible with their form of life…but a planet changes."

"So you're saying they left when Earth's environment grew hostile to them?" said Scully.

"It's a plausible theory," said Mr E. "We're talking about tens of millions of years here, its entirely conceivable that they could grow into a spacefaring culture and leave when Earth couldn't sustain them any longer."

"And now they want it back," said Mulder darkly.

"Yes, in their absence we evolved," said Mr E.

Dr H injected another dose of medicine into Gibson and began to wrap his head in a new set of bandages.

"So is Cancer Man using Gibson?"

"Yes," nodded Mulder and began to explain. "We got a tip a few days ago about a man that died in his home near here." Mulder pulled out a file folder from his own briefcase and handed it to Mr E, who opened it and winced at the photo inside.

It showed a body of a man sitting on a musty couch with his entire chest cavity blown open, clearly from the inside out by something.

"I'll never look at the movie Alien the same way again," muttered Mr E. "He was infected with the virus?"

"Looks like it," nodded Mulder. "The gestation rate of the alien was faster than I've ever seen before, only twelve hours."

"Twelve hours?!" said Dr H, looking aghast. "Agent Scully had way more time…unless…cold, cold temperatures slows the progression."

"I found Scully in a temperature-regulated capsule of sorts on the alien ship," said Mulder. "And this is Texas in the middle of summer, so if this alien needs heat to gestate its in a prime environment for it. Anyway, this alien is currently loose and Cancer Man brought Gibson here to help track it down."

"So if it needs heat and lots of it, where would it go?"

"Rolling Hills Nuclear power plant," said Mulder. "There is no accident, it's merely to cover the fact that the alien murdered a plant worker and is somewhere inside it."

"And you are here and not there because?" asked Mr E.

"We tried but we're not authorized to go in there," said Mulder. "The investigation has been taken over by Jeffrey Spender and a 'former' friend of mine Diana Fowley. Both have been put on the case by Cancer Man's 'request'."

"To cover it up or derail it no doubt," mused Mr E thoughtfully. "Dr H, can Gibson be moved safely?"

"He's stable enough to be carried, but he needs to get more medical treatment than I can provide here."

"Gibson, you've read the good Doctor's mind," said Mr E. "Do you wish to go with him to our organization's medical facility?"

"Now wait just a second…" protested Scully.

"Gibson is not safe," said Mr E sternly. "You would take him to the nearest hospital, _government_ hospital, your resources and contacts are government based. And as our adversaries demonstrate they have full access and run of those resources. We can get him to a state-of-art private medical facility run by our organization, which is hidden quite thoroughly, I assure you."

"He's telling the truth," said Gibson. "And I think it would be best if I go with Dr H."

"So what will it be, Agents?" said Mr E.

"Are you sure, Gibson?" asked Mulder, he had to admit that Mr E had a point, he and Scully could only give Gibson protection while he was in their custody, the moment he leaved it and into any government run child agency he would be snatched away again.

The boy nodded resolutely.

"Now that that is settled, how about we see about finding ourselves an alien," said Mr E.

"How do you propose we do that? The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has the place locked down tight, Spender and Fowley would head us off before we get near the front gate," said Mulder.

"I will require some creativity, but it's not impossible, Dr H, I think you should take our transportation back to HQ as soon as we leave, I will ride with the Agents."

"Very well."

Mr E opened the door to the motel room and proceeded outside, Mulder and Scully hesitated but followed in his wake after gathering their things.

"You better take care of him," said Mulder strongly.

"I will, Agent Mulder, I swear it," said Dr H, closing his medkit. Mulder feeling satisfied nodded and left.

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"Are you ready Gibson?" said Dr H, with a grin.

"Will it hurt?" asked the young boy wonderingly.

"It's an odd sensation, but nothing that you can't get used to." Dr H reached into the folds of his jacket and tapped his combadge. "H to HQ, two to transport directly to Sickbay."

"_Standby._"

Dr H took Gibson's hand in his own as the transporter beam swept them away and they vanished with sparkles of blue light.

88888888888888888888888

**Rolling Hills Nuclear Power Plant, 60 Miles East of Phoenix, Arizona**

Mr E had taken over driving the rental sedan as the power plant's massive lit form grew almost eerily in the night. Mulder was seated in the passenger side whilst Scully sat pensively in the back.

"So how are we going to do this?" asked Mulder.

"I'm taking us in via the secondary gate, hopefully this Spender won't be there," said Mr E, frowning.

"Well the secondary gate still has security and they've probably been told by Spender about us, so our FBI badges won't get us in," said Scully.

"There are other badges that will, oh, and please try not to draw too much attention to yourselves," grinned Mr E, as he turned the vehicle into the large driveway of the secondary gate. A man wearing a NRC windbreaker coming out of the guard's office attached to the gate stopped them.

Mr E stopped obligingly and rolled down his window.

"This is a restricted area, please turn your vehicle around," said the NRC guy. Mr E reached into his suit's inner pocket and produced what initially Mulder thought was a wallet badge like his own. But this one was not made of leather, but was actually a flat black plastic 'thing'. Mr E flipped it open and shoved it almost into the face of the NRC guy who was bent over and peering into their car; the man's eyes looked into the 'badge' and immediately they went slack and glassy.

"You know who I am," said Mr E, flipping the 'badge' closed with snap and putting it back. Intelligence seemed to return to the NRC guy's features at once.

"Yes, of course, Dr Kendall, sorry Sir, you're free to go in," said the guy and stood erect and waved to the guards in the gate control room. Immediately the automated heavy gate started to trundle along its rails. "Have a good evening, Sir."

Mr E smiled and nodded, putting the car in gear and drove into the facility, not a care in the world.

"What was that?" said Mulder in astonishment. "Dr Kendall?"

"I have no idea who Dr Kendall is," said Mr E with a grin. "As to what my badge was, well, would you believe me if I said it was 'magic'?"

"No," said Scully immediately.

"Oh well, it doesn't matter, what does matter is that we have access now, but which reactor building should we look in…hmmm," Mr E rolled down his window as the car coasted at the five mile an hour speed limit and stared at the passing buildings. "Aha, number four." He turned the car into a parking spot and stopped.

Mulder could see why Mr E thought Number 4 reactor building was their destination, as all the NRC vans parked near its main entrance was a good indication.

He picked up his ever-present leather briefcase and exited the car. Mulder and Scully gave each other an incredulous glance and were quick to follow in his wake.

"How are we going to past them then?"

"Same way we got in the gate," said Mr E with a grin, waving the plastic badge, "Universal Key. Stick close to me and don't speak."

The three approached the main entrance of Number 4 building, and were again stopped by a pair of guards, again Mr E waved the plastic badge at both of them after which the guard said, "Sorry, Mr Reed, go right in."

Again, they were let in without challenge!

"Careful, don't stare directly into any cameras," said Mr E warningly.

They continued their journey into the building, following the directions printed on the walls and the colored lines painted on the floor. At one point they were stopped by a keypad access door; Mr E reached into his suitcase and produced a slim looking device dominated entirely by a LCD screen and placed it against the keypad. Mulder couldn't make heads or tails of the graphics being displayed on it, but eventually it gave a beep and the doors opened…must be a keypad descrambler.

After ten minutes of walking they emerged finally into a maze of pipes, catwalks and the din of machinery.

"It's hot in here," said Mulder, wafting his shirt to cool himself from the oppressive and steamy atmosphere that surrounded them.

"The core reactor is right below us," said Mr E, still staring at his keypad device for some reason. "This is part of heat transfer cooling system. A perfect environment for getting heat…especially if you're an alien who needs it to develop further."

"Urgh," said Mulder, feeling his foot slip on something. He looked down to see his left foot had stepped into a pile of a gooey substance on the floor, that was beginning of a trail that went further ahead.

"Looks organic," said Scully.

"Maybe somebody's got the flu," said Mulder wryly.

They followed the trail of slime and eventually found a scene of what looked like a violent struggle. There was a haphazardly dropped wrench with blood on it handle and the nearby pipes had narrow parallel scratch marks on them.

"Look familiar Scully?" asked Mulder pointing to the pipes.

"The first crime scene," she said wonderingly.

"There's a something behind here," said Mr E, reaching between the mass of damaged pipes. "Oh, that's just gross." The man's face turned into a grimace as he pulled out a near ten pound blob of…discarded and slimy black skin and dumped it on the floor where it landed with a wet squelching sound.

"My goodness," said Scully, kneeling down and examining the mass closely, prodding it with a spare pen she always kept with her. "It's almost like something has shed its skin like a snake, but this skin is in no way reptilian."

"We're getting close," declared Mr E, and he walked further on, and eventually they climbed a set of stairs onto a higher level. Moving further on they were stopped by a thick lead shielded blast door that led into the reactor itself. On either side of the catwalk they were on the inner reactor walls curved away into a large circle.

Mr E pocketed his descrambler and grabbed a hold of the wheel lock on the door and turned it. Mulder raised an eyebrow at that little display of strength; he would've needed to use two hands and brace himself to turn that wheel. The bolts reaching from the door into the reactor walls retreated and allowed the heavy door to swing outward.

They entered the inner reactor; eerie blue light came from the pool of coolant water below.

It was all they could take in before a single gunshot resounded deafeningly within the room. They all ducked to the floor of the catwalk instinctively but it was immediately clear that they were not the target.

"Argghhllll…" there was a wet slapping and cracking sound.

Scully gasped at what she saw and her face drained of all color. Mulder could boast that he wasn't as shocked by the sight, having endured it numerous times before in Antarctica when he had to save Scully. Mr E merely winced.

An obsidian black skinned lithe alien stood with its powerfully clawed four fingered hands flexing, staring down at an unknown man that was slumped to floor, twitching in death. The man's body still held a pistol uselessly in its hand. Mulder had no idea who that was, but it didn't matter…for he knew it would only be a matter of seconds before the alien saw them. He drew his own weapon but Mr E placed a hand on it and shook his head.

Mr E once again reached into his suitcase and pulled out a black metallic rod with a rubber grip that with a jerk extended to triple it's length.

"Stay up here, a gun is useless in this situation," he whispered.

Mr E stood and walked briskly down the nearby stairs to the lower level. Mulder glanced towards the alien to see its reaction to the appearance of Mr E; it made a low screeching noise and flicked its wrist almost casually to remove the blood of the unknown man that dripped from its hand.

Mr E stopped about ten feet away from the alien; whom still had not moved to attack or do anything…Mulder puzzled its mannerisms for a moment, and had to guess that it seemingly did not know what to make of the strange man in the business suit that approached it unflinchingly and with no fear.

"You can assuredly understand me," said Mr E. "Your kind has been here for too long not to know our language." The alien hissed and screeched in a resonant tone.

"I'm not going to answer that," said Mr E. Mulder blinked…is he actually managing a conversation with a Colonist! "Your races' intentions for Earth and its people are unacceptable. This may have been your home long ago…but it's not anymore…you left."

There was more resonant screeching.

"I think you will find that a great many things have changed," said Mr E coldly.

And that was when all hell broke loose, the alien screeched deafeningly and sprang forward its claws slashing at Mr E.

The mysterious man moved as quick as a striking snake and blocked one slash with his briefcase, whilst intercepting the other with the rod…there was an abrupt buzzing and snapping sound and the alien screeched and reared back in pain; it left arm hung limply now at its side.

"Electrified stun baton, five hundred thousand volts," said Mr E nonchalantly and swung forward with an overhead strike with the baton. The alien showed its reflexes and speed by dodging the blurring baton; Mr E continued to swing…almost using the baton like a sword. "Your reflexes are excellent, but I know someone's who's are better." Mr E brought his suitcase now into the fight…clearly showing that it was not a normal one, by smashing it into the side of the alien without breaking, causing the alien to loose its balance and crash against the floor.

Mr E wasted no time and jabbed the baton into the body of the alien and it abruptly began to jerk and spasm as electric current shocked it into submission and eventually unconsciousness.

"There they are!"

Mulder whirled around to see a group of guard led by Diana Fowley charging towards their position - weapons drawn, from beyond the inner reactor door and across the catwalk. He seethed inwardly at her betrayal…it was she and him that had found and restarted the X-Files; and now she was doing the Cancer Man's dirty work.

A large splash turned his attention back towards the scene below and he was just in time to see Mr E diving into the reactor pool! The alien was also gone…so he assumed that Mr E had thrown the thing in first and then followed…but that water scalding hot!

"Stay where you are! Hands in the air!" Fowley and the guards had arrived. Mulder complied but remained staring at the reactor pool. Clearly Mr E didn't want to be discovered…but to commit suicide, it didn't make sense.

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**Washington DC**

Mulder sat in his apartment staring blearily at the enhanced photographs of the burnt remains of the X-Files…his coffee table was overflowing with them and it all lookedlike some giant jigsaw puzzle. It was an apt analogy for his life, one spent constantly looking for jigsaw pieces and tried to fit them together to somehow give him the truth.

"Penny for your thoughts, Agent Mulder."

Mulder felt like his heart wanted to shoot out of his mouth and before his brain could catch up with his reflexes, his pistol was out and trained on the dark figure standing in his doorway. When did the door open? He would've heard it. And was that voice whom he thought it was?

The light switch gave a snap of sound and light flooded his darkened apartment, revealing Mr E totally unharmed from his little dip in the reactor pool three days ago.

"You're alive?"

"I managed to find an…alternate means of escape, before I was permanently damaged," smiled Mr E enigmatically. "Now if you don't mind lowering your weapon, I come bearing gifts." Mulder noticed that Mr E carried a thick laptop bag under his arm; he sighed and lowered his weapon. "How was your second bout before the review board?"

"Fatal," said Mulder, sitting back down on his couch. "Scully and I are on probation, we were ordered to cease all material association with the X-Files. Our former boss Assistant Director Walter Skinner has been reassigned punitively for helping us…now we're reporting to a hard-ass bureaucrat who wouldn't know the supernatural even if it jumped up in front of him and danced naked in a tutu."

"Who is he?"

"Assistant Director Alvin D. Kersh," said Mulder. "Oh I can just see it now…one order of bozo work coming up."

"Well, I can't help you with that," said Mr E sympathetically. "But I can do this." He placed the laptop bag on the coffee table and zipped it open, after which he opened the laptop itself. It was a nice fast model, expensive too. He would've loved to have one but the beancounters at the FBI had nixed that idea.

When it had finished booting up, Mr E opened the PDF file reader and soon a document was displayed and he got out of the way for Mulder to look at it. It was a standard cover for an FBI case file…but then his eyes saw the serial number…X32452.

He browsed to the next page and his eyes widened.

"The mainframe scans," said Mulder, almost touching the screen in reverence. "But it was erased…"

"Let's just say we employ a few very good IT people," said Mr E with a grin. "I figure this beats aquagraphical document restoration and jigsaw puzzles, heh?"

"Oh yeah," said Mulder, his eyes riveted on the screen as he browsed through other X-Files.

"There is also a video message from Gibson for you, in addition to some fascinating DNA results you should share with Agent Scully."

"Can you give me the cliffnotes version?"

"Dr H has done extensive analysis on the DNA of the alien virus, he also discovered something incredible when he looked at Gibson's DNA in an effort to determine what gives him his abilities. In short, the virus is a part of his DNA. In fact, it's a part of all of our DNA. It's called a genetic remnant. It's inactive junk DNA. Except in Gibson it's turned on."

"That would mean that Gibson is in some part extraterrestrial," said Mulder in astonishment.

"It means, Agent Mulder, that all of us are."

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**DWX, Sunnydale, California**

Xander stood observing the lithe form of the Colonist. It stood staring with those fathomless black almond eyes back at him. It screeched and roared in anger and rushed forward to attack…only to bounce off the level twelve force field that flared into the visible spectrum and sent it reeling backwards into its cell.

Xander never would've imagined that they'd ever have cause to build a state of the art Brig a few months ago, but they needed to revive the Colonist from stasis for questioning…and a Brig was the only place they could do it safely.

"Are you finished? The force field is never going to go down."

"_You're wasting your time, human! I will never tell you anything!_" hissed the Colonist. Xander was glad the Universal Translator had been able to pick up on the complex language; it's resonant pattern was almost like a blend between Xindi Aquatic and Insectoid.

"You know all I want is the name you identify your own race by. Do you even have names?"

The Colonist hissed in anger, but more subdued. "Your people have been abducting and experimenting on us for decades…treating us as if we are no more than animals, well, I've gotta tell you, we are going to take that shoe and put it on the other foot. And in case you didn't understand that metaphor…we're going to perform tests on you! See how you like it! But I might be persuaded to postpone those tests…if you answer the questions!"

"_Skrit Na, is what we call ourselves, take it for what little good it will do you!_"

"That wasn't so hard, now was it?" smiled Xander. "Skrit Na. Thank you. And your name?"

"I_ have no name, we are one, and that is why you will all die! The Purity will reign forever._"

"Indeed, I had a feeling that was the case," mused Xander. "But I'm afraid we humans like to have names to address things by, so if you don't mind…I'm gonna call you Joe. And please, no bad guy clichés are allowed in this show."

The Skrit Na raged and slashed against the force field uselessly and slinked back into a corner of its cell.

"Don't hurt yourself, Joe, we wouldn't want all the info in that noggin of yours to be damaged," smirked Xander and left the Brig.

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_A/N: Yeah, I know HP:AAJ fans are disappointed, but I'm having trouble with the structure of the latest chapter. For Xata, I had this whole Alpha Flyer recon chapter in mind, but as you can see it would've been boring, as all they did was stay in cloak and scan. I wanted to move the story elements forward a bit faster. The plastic MIB-esque badge that Xander uses I'll explain fully in a later chapter, but I will say its his first foray into Technomancy. Cya._


	12. Chapter 12 Parties & Faith

**Chapter 12 – Parties & Faith**

**DWX Sickbay**

Gibson Praise had spent a week in the care of Doctor Howser. It was a week where the extraordinary boy had seemingly stepped from a dark and dreary world into another world where, while there was darkness too, it was now finally also filled with light, hope and amazing things.

Like the medical facility he was currently in.

He had quickly come to despise doctors and hospitals since his capture by the Cancer Man; for the procedures and invasive tests they would do, for the pain afterwards. And always hearing the thoughts of the doctors and people around him only added more pain...pain of the heart and soul. Was there no one who would feel for him? No one who cared that they were doing these horrible things to him? All in the name of science and the Cancer Man's dark agenda.

The Doctors all thought selfishly of how they could use him to further brain research by centuries, how much money Cancer Man was paying them, there would be one or two that had been blackmailed into doing research on him and would internally feel sorry for him, but they were powerless to help.

This medical facility, did not look like one. It had soft colors pleasing to the eye. There were no knives, scalpels, bulky machines or harsh lights. But there were lots of computer screens, odd devices on trays. He knew from Dr Howser that these were medical tools centuries in advance of current technology, that they came from Mr E, or as he should be known...Xander. That Xander had been transformed into Data from the Star Trek Universe by 'magic' of all things or as Xander had said 'quantum flux energy' directed by a Chaos Mage.

Gibson pinched himself again as he laid on the biobed to check if he wasn't dreaming this. But the pain of the pinch did not 'wake' him up. There was no imagining that he had actually been dematerialized in an actual, honest to goodness working Transporter either.

The main doors drew his attention as they swished open and Xander himself entered the room and a friendly smile appeared on his face at the sight of Gibson. The telepathic boy once again marveled at what he was sensing from the young adult/android. Contrary to what he had implied to Mulder in the motel room, he couldn't really sense Xander's mind.

Gibson's knowledge of Star Trek was quite thorough, he had been an avid follower of 'Next Gen' and Voyager before his life had taken a dark turn at the hands of the Syndicate. He knew Data had a 'positronic' artificial neural matrix or brain...now he didn't know what a positron was exactly, but it was sufficiently technological that he couldn't sense it.

"Good Morning Gibson."

"Morning." He couldn't help but feel nervous; his treatment and recovery was almost over...the time was coming when the question of 'What now?' would have to be answered. The Doctor came out of his office at this point with a Padd in his hand and consulting whatever was on it in deep thought.

"Ah, Xander, yes good morning."

"Just checking in, Doc, how is our young friend?"

"Yes, well, as you can see I've managed finally to get rid of the scarring around his head where those butchers did their cuts," Doc Howser's anger always simmered when he thought about the way Gibson had been treated. Gibson on the other hand was relieved to meet a Doctor that actually 'cared'. "His bloodwork is back to normal, and he has handily recovered that he lost from his adventure last week."

"Can he leave Sickbay?"

"Hmmm, I'd like to still keep him under nightly observation for another week to be on the safe side, but there is no reason he can't be out and about the building or the campus with an escort. But only in a wheelchair. His stamina is still understandably weak."

"That's excellent, I can finally give you that tour I promised," Xander smiled at Gibson.

"So I can see the _Alpha Flyer_?" Gibson asked in excitement.

"See? Heck, I'll take you for a spin when we have time," smirked Xander.

"There also the minor detail of Gibson's eyesight, I can easily correct his nearsightedness if he so wishes?" the Doc raised his eyebrows in question to the young telepath.

"Cool," grinned Gibson, fingering the rims of his glasses absently.

A wheelchair was provided and not just any wheelchair, this one did not have anything remotely like wheels, with a touch of a button it hovered a foot off the ground! It also looked all futuristic and hi-tech too. Clearly he didn't have to worry about stairs. There was also a small joystick on the armrest that controlled movement of the 'hoverchair'.

"You'll be a regular Professor X, for a while at least, telepathic skills and all," laughed Xander.

Gibson flushed with pleasure at the implied compliment and was helped into the chair. It was remarkably intuitive to use and the controls were smooth. Xander led the way out of Sickbay into the hallway and almost just two doors down they entered what had to be the Transporter room.

"We placed the Transporter close to to Sickbay for practical reasons, in case we can't use site-to-site for some reason," explained Xander.

Their next destination was the grounds outside and it was the first time Gibson saw Sunnydale or at least the very beautiful DWX campus. They moved now into the main Lab, and once again Gibson was struck in awe of the technology around him, the only thing he could recognize was a replicator, but others remained baffling.

Of course, his eyes immediately caught sight of the _Alpha Flyer_.

"And this...can travel the Galaxy?" Gibson breathed in awe.

"Essentially, yes," answered Xander. "Though it won't be a comfortable journey. To cross the diameter of the galaxy would take four months with Slip Drive, in tight quarters."

"So you're building bigger ships?"

"Yes, but we need a shipyard first, that's why we've been rather absent of late. It's begun construction in Namibia."

"You're going to fight the Skrit Na?"

"It looks like we're going to have to," sighed Xander. "They want their ancient homeworld back and exterminate us in the process. We can't allow that. There's also the matter of what they've done and are doing to other worlds in this quadrant. If you want I'll let you look at the recon data we have so far?"

Gibson nodded in agreement.

"Have you given any thought to what you want to do now?"

"Not really, I know I can't go back to any children's home or school...Cancer Man will find me, again. His reach is everywhere."

Xander gave a lopsided grin and said simply, "Follow me." He guided Gibson outside again and towards the perimeter fence of the campus. The android picked up a stone from a nearby flowerbed and chucked it into the air...abruptly an electric zapping sound was heard and the curve of a blue shield flared briefly into visibility. "It would take numerous direct hits from a Skrit Na Mothership to penetrate this...and that would pretty much open a can of worms they don't want right now. Therefore nothing on Earth or that Cancer Man can bring to bear can penetrate this campus. And it also helps that Sunnydale itself is somewhat obscured from government notice. Therefore you are as safe here as you can be anywhere on the planet. And, speaking of school..."

Xander led Gibson back into the main office building again and showed the Holodeck briefly before heading up to the top floor.

"This is where my office and apartment is, we've also converted this floor to serve as emergency or semi-permanent housing for anyone in dire need of our protection. Your prospective teacher lives in the apartment next to mine."

Xander pressed a button on a door that was halfway down the hall on their right and a chime sounded.

'Come in.' said a steady female voice.

The doors parted automatically at the call and Xander led the way inside the spacious apartment. Gibson was rather amazed at the beauty of the artwork on the walls but the apartment also seemed rather lacking at the same time...there was no TV in the main living room except perhaps for a laptop on a desk. The windows were open and the curtains allowed bright rays to illuminate and cast everything in a yellow glow.

In the center of everything, just in front of a sofa sat a beautiful woman with short black hair and wearing soft brown robes, seemingly meditating. His eyes caught the pointed ears and olive complexion...so this was T'Jen the Vulcan. Gibson knew almost all the Scoobies through Doc Howser's mind and memories of them, but had yet to meet them all personally...except for Willow; who had to occasionally stop by Sickbay to help the Doc when an extra hand was needed.

"Xander, Gibson," said the Vulcan in greeting, opening her eyes.

"Morning, T'Jen," grinned Xander. Gibson was still somewhat trying to get over the fact that he was actually 'sitting' in front of an actual Vulcan.

"Morning Miss T'Jen," he mumbled.

"The proper title to address me is _Savensu _T'Jen – it is Vulcan for 'teacher', if you choose to accept my tutelage. You would be _Orensu_ Gibson, - student."

"Of course it also helps that T'Jen here is a Vulcan...especially for you Gibson, since you are a telepath and she is also one...but fully trained in the Vulcan mental arts."

Gibson's eyes widened in realization..._of course! I should've realized,_ he thought.

'_Indeed you should have, Gibson_,' thought T'Jen at him with a raised single eyebrow. It took Gibson a moment to realize that the mental thought had come from her. '_Your tutelage will be fascinating, to see if a human telepath could successfully apply Vulcan mental techniques_.'

'_This is so cool! I've never felt such a quiet mind from anyone, nor been able talk to anyone else in this manner!'_

_'That is not surprising. Your ability clearly shows that Humanity in this Universe is quite capable of developing it...how common it is though, is a matter for debate._

Xander chuckled shaking his head. "I'll let you two get acquainted. Will you take over for me, escorting our resident Professor X around?" T'Jen nodded. "Good. Oh, and Gibson." The android reached into a pocket of his jacket and produced a...Starfleet combadge pin! "It's fully functional...you know how to use it?"

Gibson nodded excitedly as Xander pinned it to the blue hospital pajamas. "Welcome to DWX, Gibson."

888888888888888888

"We all ready?"

The Scoobies in the Transporter room eagerly nodded and Xander stepped up to the Control console. He tapped a few times on it and then with glide of his hand the Transporter hummed to life. The twinkling cascade blue waterfall of energy descended on the larger central pad as a human shape and what had to be the shapes of bulging luggage carried by each arm of the petite figure.

The materialization finished and a rather tanned Buffy Summers was left standing on the platform.

'WELCOME BACK!' This was the declaration of the rather lurid banner hanging on the wall facing towards the platform, complete with party balloons, streamers and confetti that exploded from small cannons mounted in either corner of the room.

"Buffy!" this was a dual shout of joy from her mother and younger sister and in a moment both had descended upon the Slayer in a group hug; who had to hurriedly drop her luggage.

"Ah, it's so good to see you guys again," mumbled Buffy into the hug.

After the family reunion, Xander was next and he hugged her warmly. "Good to have you back, Buff. This place is hardly the same without you." Buffy smiled in response.

"I don't doubt it."

Willow simply beamed with happiness as she got her turn to greet her returning friend. Giles was all Brit stoicism and stiff upper lip, yet his tone and eyes clearly showed his appreciation for his ward's return. Oz and Cordelia exchanged friendly greetings and T'Jen greeted Buffy in classic Vulcan style.

"And you are Gibson?" said Buffy, grinning at the sight of the boy standing nervously next to T'Jen.

"Yes," nodded the telepath looking suddenly rather confused at Buffy. "I know of you from the others but...it's a totally different experience to be..." he suddenly blushed and mumbled an apology.

"What Gibson is trying to articulate Buffy is that...to a telepath you are rather distinctive and it is obvious that you are not normal," said T'Jen.

"Umm...good not normal or bad not normal?"

"It depends on your point of view," replied the Vulcan with a raised single eyebrow, "from a clinical perspective, having a dual psyche is most certainly not 'good'. But 'you' are dominant over the Slayer aspect of yourself and have it under control, so in this case it is good."

"Oh," Buffy blinked.

"I think this is hardly the time for Psych 101," grinned Xander. "We have a party to get to..."

Xander interrupted himself when he saw Buffy visibly deflate and perhaps even a slight sadness now came upon her when she saw the rest of the room, or rather the lack of someone within it.

"Where's Angel?"

"I don't know, Buffy," Xander shook his head. "We told him this was the day you'd be back."

"Maybe he overslept," mused Cordelia. "He's been extremely...vigorous in his patrols lately."

"Well!" Xander clapped his hands together to break the awkward moment that had descended. "As I was saying lets get your luggage and be off, the décor in this room is just the first taste of the partyness that the Buffster will experience."

The Scoobies escorted Buffy out whilst Xander handled her overflowing luggage...no doubt Buffy had notched a generous percentage of the clothing and shoe stores in LA on her belt.

888888888888888888

**Casa Summers, Sunnydale**

Xander sat on the stairs in main hallway next to Dawn and glared ruefully at the scene in the Summers home. He had meant for the party to be just the Scoobies. But apparently Oz's band – Dingo's Ate My Baby – had rather loose lips when it came to any party that was going to be held in Sunnydale. From the looks of things word had spread from the band and it felt like half of Sunnydale High was packed into the lower floor of the home.

It was rather hard to turn away the students without causing too much of a ruckus(and ruining any social image Buffy had), so Joyce bowed to inevitable and had thrown open her home to the students; part of it could perhaps be explained by the fact that school was due to start within a few days and the 'inmates' wanted to relax before returning to the prison that was the Californian public school system.

Buffy herself was looking rather adrift in the sea of students, milling from casual conversation to the next. Willow on the other hand kept herself firmly rooted near the band – hence near Oz. Cordelia was chewing up her next jock – Xander shook his head as he saw the cheerleader engaging in some major face sucking with the guy – he gave the poor schmuck another week before Cordelia dumped him.

T'Jen and Gibson had left for DWX the moment it became clear that the intimate party of just the Scoobies wasn't going to work out. It would've been deafening to be in the house for the two telepaths on both an aural and mental level – Xander wouldn't be surprised if Gibson passed out from the overload.

Giles was keeping Joyce company in the kitchen with a friend from her book club – Pat or something was her name.

Xander sighed and pulled Dawn into comfortable embrace; she scooted onto his lap and pulled his arms around her waist like a seatbelt and leaned back into him. She was wearing one of the new specially designed dresses that kept her medical needs satisfied yet still looked normal; it was blue and the dress ended just above her knees giving Xander a rather beautiful view of those toned legs of hers and he would occasionally nuzzle and kiss the arch of her exposed neck to which she made the most thrilling sounds in response. She could also appear in public now that they had finally been successful at a bit of Technomagic – the optical implant was now enspelled for people to not notice it at all; their eyes just slid over it and their mind dismissed it. They let the song of the Dingoes wash over them and lost themselves in the moment...Xander could swear time had just slowed...

_You can send me a savior._

_That lives till the end of time._

_Time_

_The promise of heaven_

_But that only leaves me dry,_

_Dry_

_Too many saviors/And I wont die._

_I never cried, but I needed more from you_

_I found my life without you now_

_And I never mind/I'm only half as blind._

_Cause I needed more from you._

_And I never mind_

_I'm only half as blind,_

_Cause I needed more from you_

_You say my reflection never fades from your eyes._

Time returned to normal.

"Buffy seems a bit down," commented Dawn.

Xander's eyes found the Slayer as she was talking to Willow, or at least trying to since the witch was sticking close to the band – which made conversation rather difficult.

"Angel."

"I guess so," mused Dawn. "You got any inside scoop on why he's been Mr Avoiding lately?"

"Well, Angel hardly wants me as a sounding board for his manly undead issues, but it seems this started the moment we managed to alter Herr Snyder's memory..."

"...meaning that it was a sure thing Buffy was coming home then."

"Angel has always been Mr Broodfest, but the recent Angelus situation has perhaps told him he can never give Buffy what she wants in the long run...I mean, we altered the parameters of the curse so it could not be broken that way again. But...its not like she can marry him and have his children. She ages, he doesn't."

"Hmmm," Dawn agreed sadly. "If that's the case...then it looks like its over."

"Xander!"

The shout over the din of the partygoers and music came from Giles, peering through the railing of the stairs at them.

"G-man, what's up?"

"I'm sorry to interrupt you two, but we have _something_ in the basement that needs attention." The inflection was enough for Xander to understand that the hellmouth had just thrown its first new curve ball their way.

Xander and Dawn entered the basement on Giles' heels and immediately an awful smell of rotting death hit their noses.

"That's just, gross," winced Dawn, pinching her nose shut. Giles picked up a oldish looking birdcage that must have been down in the basement, and held it up for inspection. A cat was hissing and spitting at them from inside...now this would be normal, if it wasn't for the fact that this cat clearly should have been dead – it had rotten gaps in its flesh and no internal organs whilst its hair was caked with blood and standing in odd directions.

"Undead zombie cat, that's a new one," said Xander.

"Joyce sent me down to fetch some more cutlery from storage," explained Giles. "When I was suddenly assaulted by this..." he shook the cage.

"And in a daring feat of bravery and cunning you trapped the menacing, deadly, zombie cat in a cage," said Xander mock-pompously. Giles simply stared flatly in reply and gestured at the cage. "Ok, lets see what we have," he pointed his Tricorder at it, "hmmm, dead body purely animated by q-flux."

"Q-flux?" Giles questioned.

"Short for quantum flux energy, in laymen's terms, magic. That's odd."

"What's odd?"

"This form of q-flux is permeating the entire house, and is growing exponentially."

"So anything that's already dead will become a zombie within the area of effect?" theorized Dawn.

"Judging by Mr undead cat here, yeah."

"Can you tell where it's coming from within the house?" asked Giles urgently.

"Luckily we caught whatever this was early, if it had become stronger I wouldn't have been able to tell you...second floor...either in the main bedroom or Buffy's."

Xander pocketed his tricorder and the three left the basement trying to hurry but not look that way. They ended up doing a fast trot back into the throng of the party and threaded their way up to the staircase. Xander knew Buffy would usually throw an apoplectic fit at her bedroom being 'investigated', but needs of the many and all that jazz. In her room he took out his tricorder and tried again...but the energy was just too intense.

"What could emit q-flux that causes the dead to become zombies? I assume it's an object and there's not an invisible necromancer or something hiding here," said Dawn wryly.

"A Necromancer would actually struggle somewhat to function in Sunnydale," Giles said, looking over his Slayer's room with scrutiny. "The dimensional instability of the place wreaks havoc on the balancing of such magicks. So it's definitely some form of artifact...it would be old, possibly tribal..."

"I doubt Buffy would have anything older than a few years in her room...valley girl you know," grinned Xander.

They moved into the main bedroom where Joyce slept and after a quick glance, lo and behold, just above the headboard against the wall hung a rather sinister looking wooden oak African tribal mask, that had green crystal eyes. Xander held up his tricorder against it and it practically shrieked its warning tone.

"This is it..."

"Oh dear, can this be..." murmured Giles in thought. "Xander, reference your occult database on this thing, narrow your search parameters to Nigeria..."

Xander nodded as his eyes went slightly glassy and then cocked his head subconsciously. "Crap, how did Mrs S get this thing...this is the Mask of the zombie demon Ovu Mobani. Its supposed to be contained and under constant watch by Nigerian shaman."

"Well, I remember mom saying she got an art shipment a week ago from Africa for the Gallery," said Dawn worriedly.

"Okay, from now on we inspect any shipments she gets for possible mystical or occult artifacts, there are quite a few out there in the world which could be mistaken as innocent artworks, I shudder to think what will happen if she gets something like the Obscura Paintings on the hellmouth," said Giles darkly. "Let's stick to the matter at hand though, hanging the Mask in this fashion has obviously activated its power, we would never be able to get it back to Nigeria in time conventionally...could we use a transporter?"

"With the sheer amount of localized q-flux its emitting. No way," Xander shook his head. "I wouldn't be able to lock onto it properly, and I'd probably blow out the Heisenberg Compensator trying."

"Then we must destroy it," said Dawn simply.

"Xander?"

"I'm worried about simply discharging a Phaser into it, the competing energies might make for a bit of a destructive mix which would mean this whole upper floor would be ruined. So we have to go old school."

Xander climbed with his knees onto the large bed and easily ripped the Mask off the wall, seeing as it had only been secured by a single nail. He hopped off the bed, and dropped the mask to the floor and pulled out one of his Mek'leth's from their holsters under his jacket, and promptly threw it at the mask. The blade buried itself into the crystal eyes of Ovu Mobani...there was immediately a pained scream and with a flash of destructive white light the Mask vaporized leaving a residual scorch mark on the carpeting.

"It's always said prevention is better than cure," noted Giles.

"Be sure to tell Mrs S that when we have to explain why her carpet is ruined."

"Oh dear."

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**Sunnydale High School**

The first morning of the new academic year had passed, and it was now lunch. Near the front entrance of the school, Seniors were milling about to and fro, going about the business of mostly getting unhealthy food to sustain themselves for the next round of academic torture within the school.

"I'm giddy." Willow burbled, standing on the edge of the school property.

"I like you giddy," smiled Oz, in response to his girlfriend's bubblyness. It was extremely endearing and one of the things he loved about her.

"It's the freedom!" declared Willow. "As Seniors, we can go off campus now for lunch. It's no longer cutting. It's legal! Heck, it's expected. Wow, it's, uh, also a big step forward, a Senior moment, one that has to be savored."

Xander and Cordelia grinned in amusement at the scene from behind the pair.

"You can't just rush this you know?" enthused Willow, glancing back at her friends.

Xander nodded once to Oz and they each grabbed an arm and promptly lifted Willow off the ground and started to walk her across the street and away from the school.

"Oh! W-wait, wait, no I can't," she gibbered, "what if they change the rule without telling?What if they're lying in wait to arrest me...a-and throw me in detention and mar my unblemished record?"

"Breathe, breathe," advised Xander with an amused grin, as they put the witch down on the other side of the street and steadied her on the sidewalk. She took a deep breath, let it out and visibly calmed herself.

"Okay, hmm..." said Willow with consideration, finding her equilibrium. "This is good. This is...hey, we're Seniors. _Hey, I'm walking here_." She uttered with a mock superior attitude and giggled at herself.

"Now that that's over with," said Cordelia, "where did Buffy say she was meeting us with our food?" Buffy had had a free period before lunch and volunteered to get it in time for them.

Xander simply gestured to the park a street down from the school and headed in that direction. They found her to their surprise sitting on a blanket in the shade of a tree with a numerous plastic containers with a variety of delicious looking foods within them.

"Buffy, how are you and what's for lunch?" asked Xander as he and the rest sat on the blanket around her.

"Oh, I threw a few items together from the replicator," she shrugged.

"When did you become Martha Stewart?" asked Cordelia, looking somewhat impressed at the selection on offer.

"First of all, Martha Stewart knows jack about replicated then hand-cut prosciutto," retorted Buffy, handing out the drink bottles, whilst everyone helped themselves to the food.

"I don't believe she slays either," pointed out Xander.

"Oh, I hear she can, but she doesn't like to," disagreed Oz, and bit into his food.

"Second of all, she doesn't have a brooding vampire slash ex-boyfriend, who has broken up with her only because 'its the right thing to do'." Buffy's voice had a tense false cheeriness to it as she spoke.

Xander winced, remembering when Angel had shown up unexpectedly just a few minutes after they had dealt with Ovu Mobani. Angel had tried to get Buffy into the kitchen to break his 'bad news' privately, but Buffy's temper had made the whole thing blow up into a public spectacle and they had a rather loud shouting match which had caught the whole party's attention. Xander's own thoughts was that while he would definitely want Angel in a fight and respected him in such an arena...as boyfriend to Buffy...no, the writing was on the wall from day one.

"But that's good...in a way, coz it means now you're single again and can hook up with any cute guy that tickles your fancy," said Cordelia pointedly, and took a sip from her drink.

"Yeah," nodded Willow, "ooo, Scott Hope at eleven o'clock." Xander saw Buffy dart her head in the appropriate direction and saw the handsome guy who most girls in the school fawned over. Scott Hope was one of those guys who had the looks and some brains, but zip commitment. "He likes you," continued Willow, "he wanted to ask you out last year, but you weren't ready then. But I think maybe he can be Mr Rebound for you, or you can at least make conversation with him, o-or do that thing with your mouth that boys like."

Xander almost spat out his coke in astonishment...she couldn't have meant...Buffy was staring at Willow with wide eyes...

"Oh! I didn't mean the _bad _thing with your mouth, I meant that little half-smile thing you..." Willow suddenly glared at the laconic Oz, "You're supposed to stop me when I do that."

Oz merely smiled and shook his head. "I like when you do that." Of course this melted Willow's ire instantly. Scott Hope himself did a nearby pass of their picnic site and exchanged a smiling 'I'm checking you out' greeting with Buffy, which she returned in full force and he continued on his way.

"I think that went very well," grinned Willow hugely. "Don't you think that went very well?"

"He didn't try to slit our throats or anything," nodded Cordelia firmly. "That's progress."

"Hey, did you do that little half-smile thing?" Willow asked intently.

"Look, I'm not going to snare Scott Hope," sighed Buffy, "I just want life to return to normal. Do normal stuff..."

"Like date?"

"Well..."

"Oh, you wanna date, I saw that half-smile," declared Xander pointing at her with his fork.

"All right, yes," admitted Buffy, "date, shop, hang out, go to school, and save the world from unspeakable demons and aliens with my friends. You know...I wanna do girly stuff!"

888888888888888888

**Library, Sunnydale High**

Xander, Willow and Buffy entered the library and oddly enough found it totally devoid of people. Usually there were at least a couple of die-hard students in the place at this time. Xander mused that Giles had probably made up some excuse to chuck them out for this inpromptu 'Buffy' meeting. Xander didn't really like the idea that Giles had come up with but since he was not Buffy's Watcher, that he really didn't have a say in the matter beyond influencing the Watcher's opinion.

"Did Giles say what he wanted? Do you think he's mad? He was very curt over the com," Buffy asked worriedly, as they stopped at the counter, where various bowls and jars of dried herbs were arrayed.

"No, I don't think so, he just needed to see you," Willow glanced around with a smile, looking for the Watcher, satisfied he was not here yet she said, "Have you ever noticed though, that when he is mad, but he's too English to say anything, he makes that weird cluck-cluck sound with his tongue?"

And then, as if he teleported, Giles appeared behind the counter rising up from a kneeling position, and looking at all the spell ingredients he had gathered on it. Willow had her back to him, and as such did not see him.

"Hi Giles," said Buffy with a knowing grin at Willow. Xander snickered at the worried look on his oldest friend's face, as she turned to face the Watcher.

"Oh hi, been there long?"

"Buffy, good timing," said Giles, looking visibly preoccupied as he regarded the jars in front of him. "I could use your help. I trust you haven't forgotten the demon Acathla?"

"Kinda hard to forget," said Buffy, playing with a bowl on the counter and then gesturing to the ingredients, "what are you doing? Making him some demon pizza? He's completely destroyed."

"Destruction is a rather relative thing when you're dealing with demons at Acathla's level of power," explained Giles. "While you certainly destroyed his physical form in _this_ dimension, his essence can with enough effort and power be recalled, and then all it would need is a suitable vessel to be created for it and...well...he'd be back. So we need to make sure the essence of Acathla is completely banished as well. So I'm working on a spell to do just that."

"Oh, a spell? Can I help?" Willow perked up immediately. Xander inwardly grimaced, this was not part of the plan.

"Possibly with the research, it's very sensitive and..."

"Oh! Who's more sensitive than me?" she retorted, sounding hurt.

"...and difficult spell." Giles finished pointedly. "It involves creating a protective circle around...well I don't want to bore you with the details, but, uh, well, there's a litany that one has to recite in Aramaic, and it's very specific. So I need to get a few details about your experience in defeating Angelus and Acathla. I've already talked to Xander and Angel, but it's important to get as much information as possible."

"Fire away," she said with a sigh.

"I've put the time at about six seventeen, around twenty minutes after Xander rescued me."

"Less, more like ten minutes."

"Did the dimensional vortex at any time open, even minutely?"

"No, I managed to stop Angelus before he could pull out the sword."

"I see," nodded Giles, now organizing his spell reagents. "And Angelus?"

"A big fight, Angelus got the pointy end of the sword, and with Xander's prompting, I used his blood to destroy Acathla. That's pretty much it."

Giles wrote a few notes on a pad, and nodded, "Yes, um, that should be helpful."

"Oh no, I've got to home, my mom insisted on some family time," said Buffy checking her watch. "See ya at the Bronze later tonight?"

"We'll be there," nodded Xander.

Willow picked up a bundle of sage from the counter and sniffed, "Mmm, sage, I love that smell, ooh, and marnox root. You know a smidge of this mixed with a virgin's saliva..." Giles gave her a rather potent look. "...does something I know nothing about." She backtracked hurriedly.

"Been experimenting Willow?" asked Xander with a raised eyebrow.

"Um...yeah, only little things..."

"These forces are not something that one plays around with, Willow," Giles said sternly. "What have you been conjuring?"

"Nothing much...since the spell to cure Angel," she said uncomfortably, "just stuff: like floating a feather, fire out of ice, which next time I won't do on a bedspread. Are you mad at me?"

"No, of course not," the Watcher looked down at his notes, "if I were I would be making a strange clucking sound with my tongue." Willow looked seriously embarrassed and smiled rather cutely at him.

"I on the other hand think that you must keep yourself under the mentorship of T'Jen, Willow," said Xander with a frown.

"But her transformation..." objected Willow.

"Yes, she might not be capable of the same types of magicks that you can access anymore," agreed Xander. "But despite that, I think that you must keep her as a...'moral guide', when it comes to magick. When to use it, and when not. She still has all of Jenny's experience to guide you."

"Oh, that makes sense I guess."

"Xander has good point, Willow, I suggest you take it to heart as more than a guess," Giles said intently. "By the way, speaking of T'Jen, she mentioned that you've recently been successful in a bit of Technomagic."

"Oh yeah," nodded Xander. "With her help I managed to make my equivalent of Doctor Who's Psychic Paper ID. Used it to help our FBI friends and catch the Skrit Na."

"Fascinating, you'll show me how to do it at a convenient time?"

"No problem G-man."

8888888888888888

**The Bronze, Sunnydale**

Xander allowed the music to pump through his soul as he moved in a close freestyle dance with Dawn expertly mirroring and complimenting his movements. Occasionally she would throw in a bit of gyration against his body with those absolutely gorgeous hips of hers which were marvelously on display in tight jeans and a full body top that looked like it was painted on. She loved to tease him like this and he groaned inwardly, finding it both frustrating and exciting.

Their dancing was actually attracting a bit of attention from some of the nightly crowd sitting at their various places around the dancefloor. Xander briefly flittered with the idea to perhaps begin dancing some of the extra-terrestrial styles he knew of thanks to Data's experiences of all the cultures he had visited...that would certainly give the crowd something to remember, but curbed the impulse quickly and sticked to Terran freestyle.

Soon, however, Xander saw that their dancing was not the only thing drawing attention. There was another couple. A girl roughly their own age; with dark brown hair reaching to her shoulders where it curled , a hot body (nowhere in Dawn's league though) and dressed to flaunt it with a lot of skin showing, was dancing with a guy who clearly did not subscribe to current popular dance styles...in fact he was dancing too fast, with a seventies Disco cadence.

Ordinarily Xander would've just written off the guy as perhaps a vintage Disco fan, but since this was Sunnydale...he timed his next dance move so that he could get a proper look at him in the infrared spectrum...

He tapped Dawn to stop her next teasing gyration and feigned that he was tired and wanted a drink. She began to object when she saw his eyes...he whispered into her ear...she casually turned to the dancing disco dude and then grabbed Xander's hand and led him off to the alcove where Buffy was hanging out with Oz and Willow.

Xander took a seat and Dawn appropriated his lap as her own.

"Hey sis, check out Miss Provocative and her Disco Dave."

Buffy stared at where Dawn was pointing for a while, getting a look of appalled fascination on her face at the dancing of the guy.

"Seems like that last thing he danced to was KC and the Sunshine Band, literally speaking," said Xander. Willow and Oz cocked their heads to stare at the oddly dancing guy. The couple danced, getting closer...touching at one point, and separated again. The hot girl was doing quite well in sending a smoldering seductive look towards the guy and then extended her arm almost sensually and pointed at the door leading outside. The guy took the hint, and led her out with his arm around her.

"I don't think that guy thrives on sunshine," Buffy said grimly.

"It's good to see your senses haven't dulled Buff," nodded Xander. "Shall we go save the damsel soon to be in distress?"

Buffy nodded putting down her drink and hurried out of the alcove with the rest of the Scoobies behind her. As they crossed the room behind the dance floor, of all times, Scott Hope moved in to intercept her for a chat.

"Hi," he said with a smile.

"Oh, hi...sorry, I really have to..." she pointed to the door.

"Oh uh, sorry, I get it, my bad," said Scott, holding his hands up.

"No...uh, it's mine," Buffy apologized, "but I...uh, really have to go."

They left a very confused Scott in their wake.

They emerged into the alley outside the Bronze and looked up and down, no one was in sight.

"Where'd she go?"

They split up to check both directions, when they heard a girl's voice around a corner on the far side.

"Hey!" it called out in a distinct tone of complaint. Something crashed and broke shortly after. Xander pulled out one of his Mek'leth's and handed it to Buffy, and kept the other one in hand as they rushed towards the origin of the scuffling sounds.

The disco guy had the hot girl pushed against a temporary chain link fencing that was leaning against the main building.

"Stop struggling, this won't hurt," said disco guy menacingly; and promptly vamped out...getting ready to bite. But the hot girl was surprisingly unfazed at the gruesome sight and promptly grabbed the vampire by the neck, pushed him away a bit, and elbow jabbed him the face powerfully.

The vampire staggered back and regained his balance as she jumped onto a handy crate. She used the gained height to perform a near perfect jumping roundhouse kick directly to his face, knocking him to the pavement.

By this time the Scoobies with Buffy and Xander in the lead had arrived. The hot girl noticed them and approached with a wicked yet kind smile on her face, her dark hazel eyes glittering.

"It's okay, I got it. You're Buffy, right?"

Buffy was clearly aback that this hot girl/proficient fighter knew her. But before Buffy could answer the vamp came up behind the girl and grabbed her by the shoulders, she immediately snapped her head back to head butt him in the face and grabbed onto his arm.

"I'm Faith," she said nonchalantly, as she twisted the vampire's around and shoved him into the section of chain link fence.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and say there's a new Slayer in town," Oz commented easily to Willow.

Faith kneed the vamp in the gut from behind. He whirled around to try and backhand punch her but she easily ducks it. She punches him in the gut and face, followed with a high side kick to the vamp's jaw, grabbed onto his shirt and neck and threw him down to the ground in a brutal takedown throw. The vamp did a quick no hand front roll to control his fall, while Faith quickly reached over to Buffy and snatched the Mek'leth from her hand.

"Can I borrow that?" Faith asked after the fact and rushed to meet the vampire as he gained a vertical base and ran back at her, throwing a punch as he came. She ducked it, hooked her hand on his shoulder, turned him around and pushed him back into the fence. The Mek'leth sang through the air and it decapitated the vamp easily, the seperated head and body instantly crumbled to ashes.

Buffy simply stared in confused amazement. Faith faced her and handed back the weapon.

"Nice blade B, and thanks. Couldn't have done it without you."

Faith continued walking past the Scoobies and headed back into the Bronze.

888888888888888

A waitress brought a tray of muffins and drinks to the alcove where the Scoobies, plus one Faith the newish Vampire Slayer, had retired to to get acquainted. She was a live wire, so to speak, in Xander's opinion. Bursting with energy and he couldn't help but compare her to Buffy. Faith had a more defined and taller body and actually looked somewhat like she could be a Slayer in terms of physical appearance. She also had visible barbed wire tattoos snaked around her upper arms. Her Bostonian accent was quite pronounced and she liked to contract names considerably. It was clear that her upbringing was quite different to Buffy's.

"The whole summer it was like, the worst heat wave," she said enthusiastically, explaining one of her notable experiences as a Slayer, "so it's about a hundred and eighteen degrees and I'm sleeping without a stitch on."

Xander tried his best not imagine it, and failed.

"And all of a sudden, I hear this screaming from outside. So I go tearing out, stark nude," even Oz seemed to struggle to remain unaffected by that mental image, and settled for merely raising an eyebrow, "and this church bus has broke down, and there's these three vamps feasting on half the Baptists in South Boston. So I waste the vamps, and the preacher comes up, and he's hugging me like there's no tomorrow, when all of a sudden, the cops pull up and they arrested us both."

Faith reached for a muffin and dug into it enthusiastically.

"Oops, were you embarrassed at all?" asked Dawn curiously.

"Nah, I'm pretty laid back, I got the goods...now way I'm ashamed of 'em," said Faith absently grabbing another muffin, "God, I could eat a horse. Isn't it crazy how slayin' makes you hungry and horny?"

The Scoobies turned as one to Buffy with questioning glances as if to ask '_Is that true?'_ She in turn stared back with wide eyes, looking uncomfortable.

"Well...sometimes I,uh, have a craving for nonfat yogurt afterwards."

"So have you met Kendra?" Dawn inquired.

"Yeah, I met the K-girl briefly, now that chick has got the island motif down pat," grinned Faith. "She and her Watcher came to fetch me some time after I was called...explained the whole underworld deal and introduced me to my own Watcher."

"So why were you called here?" said Willow.

"Well, I wasn't. My Watcher went off to some retreat thing in England, and so I skipped out. I figured this was my chance to meet the infamous Buff and compare notes." Buffy gave Faith a little smile in response to that. "So, B, did you really use a rocket launcher one time?"

Xander smirked inwardly. _So Giles' creative reporting to the Council worked, hah_! The Watcher had long decided that anything to do with DWX, its technologies, and how it helped against the evils of the hellmouth could not be reported to the Council. Their reaction could not be reliably predicted, but if the history between the Gypsy and Watcher's was anything to go by, then it would not be good. Hence, Giles carefully edited his reports of events...therefore, instead of Xander killing the Judge with a Type 3 Phaser set on maximum, it was Buffy destroying him with a rocket launcher, at least according to the official record.

"Uh, yeah, it's actually a funny story...we were fighting this apocalypse demon called the Judge and Xander stole the launcher from Sunnydale's National Guard armory...the Judge couldn't be killed by any weapon forged by man...or so the saying went, but the launcher was assembled, manufactured by machines...so boom-splat."

"You go girl," grinned Faith, sounding impressed.

"Team effort, though, Xander's idea, I was just the delivery girl," shrugged Buffy.

"My next baddy," continued Faith, flicking her eyes speculatively at the entwined Xander and Dawn, "was this Big Daddy Vampire out of Missouri who kept alligators as pets. So he's got me rassling one of 'em, okay? The thing must have been twelve feet long, luckily my Watcher likes to watch those Nature channels, so just like Steve Irwin I got my hands clamped down, keeping the jaws closed while it tries to roll me off. I just waited until it got no energy left bein' a reptile and of course the vamp last saw me goin under and thinks I'm dead. Staked the bastard with a picket from his own fence." She shook her head. "Anyway, so what was your toughest vamp kill?"

"I wouldn't call it a kill," sighed Buffy. "But I had to fight Angelus until Willow here could mojo a Curse on him."

"Damn, you fought one of the toughest bad-asses from the old days," Faith grinned.

"Yes, well, if you see him on the hellmouth, just to inform you that he's now cursed with a soul," explained Xander. "And 'Angel' helps keep the nightlife in check with us."

"Understood, Mr X," nodded Faith. "Vamp with a white hat, check. No slaying."

"Something occurs to me," said Oz in typical cool fashion, "you both, um, kill vampires, and who could blame you, I'm wondering your position on werewolves."

"Oz is a werewolf," said Willow, grabbing her boyfriend in a hug.

"It's a long story," grinned Buffy.

"I got bit," Oz relaxed into Willow's embrace.

"Apparently, not that long."

"Hey," shrugged Faith, "as long as you don't go scratchin' at me or humpin' my leg, we're five-by-five, you know?"

"Fair enough."

"The vamps though, better get their asses to Defcon One, cause you and I," she pointed to Buffy, "are gonna have fun, you know, Watcherless and fancy free."

"Watcherless?" frowned Buffy.

"Didn't yours go to England too?" asked Faith, looking around.

888888888888888

**Sunnydale High**

Rupert Giles stood with his hands in his pockets staring up almost dreamily at the ceiling. Xander would've bet anything the guy was currently on Cloud Nine, in his head at least.

"There's a Watcher's retreat near the Cotswolds, it's lovely spot. It's very s-serene. There's horse riding, hiking and punting," he smiled and stared at the assembled Scoobies, "and lectures and discussions...it's a great honor to be invited." He suddenly came down to earth and was quite bitter about it. "Or so I'm told."

"Oh it's boring," dismissed Faith. "Way too stuffy for a guy like you."

"Um, maybe I should introduce you again," said Buffy, looking at Faith as if she was few chips short of a happy meal, "Faith this is _Giles_."

"I see him," Faith said with a grin, ignoring the sarcasm, "if I'd known that they came _that_ young and cute, I would've requested a transfer."

Of course, that was Giles' cue to take of his glasses and polish them.

"Raise your hand if, ew," Buffy looked quite grossed out. Xander wisely decided to refrain from making any comment and the rest of the Scoobies followed suite.

"Well," chuckled the Watcher, seemingly amused, "leaving aside for a moment my...youth and beauty. I'd say it was fortuitous that Faith arrived when she did." He pulled a newspaper from the nearby copier.

"Aha!" Willow shot up with her finger in air. When everyone looked at her in askance. "Sorry, I just meant...Aha! There's big evil brewin. You'll never be bored here, Faith." The Slayer in question grinned at that statement. "'Cause this is Sunnydale. The home of the big brewin' evil."

"Yes, well, I don't know how big of an evil it is, but two people have disappeared from the Sunset Ridge District," explained the Watcher and handed the newspaper over to both Slayers.

"Well, I'm good for patrolling. Late-ish though. I promised Mom I'd be home for dinner."

"That's all right, Buffy," said Xander grabbing the offered newspaper from Faith. "You and Dawn go home, Faith and I will patrol."

"Hey!" objected Dawn. Xander gave his girlfriend a significant look.

"You sure you can hack it, X?" smirked Faith.

"I've hidden depths, and the fact that Giles isn't clucking tells you he has no problem with it."

"Are you sure about this?" frowned the Watcher, giving the android an appraising look. Xander nodded firmly. "Very well, make sure you're geared up properly and good luck."

"C'mon Faith, those vamps aren't going to slay themselves."

"After you, stud."

Xander pointedly ignored Dawn intercepting Faith and hissing something in her ear as he gathered his trenchcoat from the library cage.

88888888888888

It was an hour before midnight and the second hour of their patrol together through the commercial district of Sunnydale. Faith had been rather vocal and engaging the whole time, asking about the exploits of the Scoobies and waxing similarly poetic about her own experiences. It allowed him to conclude that Faith had a rather troubled history...it wasn't really what she said, it's more what she didn't say. She spoke only of her time since she was called...the time before that might as well have never happened.

Her interest in his weapons was also extreme. For this patrol he had given her a pair of the modified Mek'leth's with stakes attached to them. She had also quickly noticed his UMP, and he showed her the ammunition that made the weapon effective against vamps.

"Heck, X, with this anybody could be a Slayer, even got a Silencer," smirked Faith, handing back the weapon after sighting down it...her familiarity with it and they way she handled it added another clue in his mental picture of her. "Does B use it?"

"No," he clipped the UMP back under his coat and they resumed their patrol. "She has the Californian disdain for firearms plus I think her Slayer aspect doesn't like it either."

"Nothing like dishin' out a beating on somethin', I get that," nodded Faith. "But it's her loss though, I don't sell short any weapon..." They next took a route through an alley where some construction equipment was stored for work on the building being renovated next to it. "Say, didn't we do this street already?"

"I'm leading us on a search pattern that occasionally double backs and retraces a route," explained Xander. "It allows us to see if someone is following us, or if the vamps arrive after we've already been to a place."

"Cool," said Faith, "that almost sounds kinda military...where d'ya pick it up?"

"If I told you in another Universe, would you believe me?"

"With all the shit I've seen since I was called, heck yeah X."

"Well, the whole story would take too long and lets just say 'trust takes time'."

"You don't trust me?" grinned Faith, her eyes sparkling.

"It would be easier to trust you if you hadn't lied about where your Watcher is."

"I don't know what you're talking about X-man," said Faith, acting surprised. "I told you guys...she's at that retreat thing."

"You're lying again," retorted Xander. "You're very good at concealing it, heck your eyes didn't even twitch into the right side of your head, which is the classic nonverbal sign of someone telling a fib. I, however, can tell someone is lying by vocal patterns, and the rhythm of a heartbeat."

"How the hell can you hear my heart?"

It was like a switch had been flipped. Gone was the gung ho I can handle anything Faith, in it's place was an angry yet also fearful girl who also happened to be a Slayer.

"I have very good ears, I could probably hear a whispered conversation several hundred meters away if I was so inclined."

"Then you can't be human, what are you?" she hissed.

"I'm partially human and let's leave it at that for now, since there are three vampires about to attack us." Xander pushed her behind him and intercepted the first vamp's attack and gave a single punch into his gut that sent the vamp flying backwards to crash into a dumpster. The second one was next and threw a punch that he easily ducked. He blocked another two punches from the vamp in a blur and then gave a double punch to the face and stomach that sent him flying as well, to crash against alley wall.

Faith had in the meantime rushed over to a trashcan, while Xander fought with the third vamp...this one had some definite martial arts skill and was preventing him from easily winning. Faith raised the trashcan and crashed it over the third vamp's head that bent it severely around his head, blinding him. She grabbed him and threw him into a drywall, allowing Xander to take on the recovered first vamp.

Xander unleashed an economical combo of uppercut, groin strike and elbow strike, one flowing into the other, leaving the vamp defenseless against the single Mek'leth in his right hand, whose reverse stake stabbed into its chest...turning him to ashes. Meanwhile vampire number two had snuck up to grab Xander from behind.

_Honestly_, he thought. The vamp tried to pull him away, but he didn't budge. He merely grabbed both arms of the vampire and ripped them forward in a Jiujitsu maneuver that broke both arms, snapping them like twigs. While keeping a hold on the now limp arms, Xander lifted them and pirouetted his body. The vampire, screaming in pain, was thrown into the air spinning like a horizontal drill. The vamp crashed to the ground after which it was easy to dispatch it into dust.

Faith's opponent in the meantime got a spinning side kick to the stomach, he was forced back and knocked his head hard against a low pipe. The vamp quickly recovered to retaliate with a punch that landed in her face, but it didn't faze her at all. She blocked two more punches with her forearms and then backhand punched him in the face.

"My dead mother hits harder than that!" she screamed in challenge.

_Oh shit,_ thought Xander. Faith seemed to have had a rather less than ideal home life. _I can relate_. She grabbed the vamp by the sweater and threw him against a couple of sheets of drywall laid across two sawhorses, which broke instantly under the weight. She ran up to him again, grabbed the sweater and began punching the vamp in the face...and didn't stop.

Her face was a picture of anger, sheer ferocity, and Xander imagined she was not seeing a vampire being pummeled, but someone else. Xander cocked his head to one side and whirled, his UMP coming up out of his jacket, six muted shots later left two vampires joining the dust and ash in the alley.

Xander turned back to see that Faith had continued to beat on her vampire, whose face was now reduced to a bloody mess. But she continued. "This is me (punch) you un (punch) dead (punch) bastard!"

Amazingly the punchbag vampire managed to shout back at her, "For (punch) Kakistos we (punch) live! For (punch) Kakistos you'll (punch) die!"

Faith snarled and finally reached for her holstered Mek'leth and put the vampire out of its misery. She collapsed to her hands and knees with the body of the vampire no longer supporting her and breathed heavily simply staring into nothingness.

"Your Watcher is dead," said Xander softly, standing a few feet away not moving to help her in any way. He knew she wouldn't appreciate it, just as he wouldn't.

Her face hidden by her hanging hair she slowly put her feet under herself and stood. When her face became visible it was shrouded with anger, yet in her eyes was a desperation that Xander had seen many times in the mirror when his own parents drunken abuse had reached their worst highs.

"They don't have a word for what he did to her, what he was going to do to me...and I watched, powerless to help...I could only run..."

"You fought Kakistos?"

Her dark hazel eyes narrowed perceptively. "You know him?"

"I know _of _him only," said Xander. "He's the oldest vampire on the planet at the moment and has ties to organized crime in Greece, here and quite a few other major countries. And now it seems he has followed you here..."

Faith whirled around and began walking down the alley. "I hope you don't mind if I keep the blades."

"Whoah, whoah, where do you think you're going?" asked Xander, rushing to intercept her.

"Where do you think?" she bit out, as she stopped due to him standing in her way.

"If you think that running away will help, it won't, he's a resourceful crime lord and can track you to the ends of the earth."

"Well I don't exactly have a choice," she spat. "I tried to fight him...only managed to gouge out his eye, and if it wasn't for Dorry and her crossbow, I would've died. No one can fight him. There's always too many of them..."

"You must eventually turn and confront him. The difference now will be that you will not do it alone. Come with me, Faith, and I'll show you a place that not even Kakistos could penetrate..." he took a step away and looked expectantly at her. She studied his face for a long moment as if trying to deduce his sincerity, then lowered her head and nodded.

8888888888888

**DWX Sunnydale**

Xander closed the door on the apartment on the third floor to see a rather anxious Giles, Gibson and a stoic T'Jen waiting for him.

"How is she?" asked Giles.

"Asleep," sighed Xander. "Did you confirm with the Council?"

"It's true," nodded the Watcher. "Professor Diana Dormer was Faith's Watcher in Boston, they ran afoul of Kakistos two months after she was called. Professor Dormer's remains had to be identified via DNA matching," he winced. "The Council had listed Faith as missing until my phone call."

"The question now remains what to do about Kakistos," stated T'Jen. "Based on what we know of him, it's logical to assume that he is here in Sunnydale, pursuing Faith for revenge."

"Then we must take him out," said Xander simply.

"To do so conventionally will be extremely difficult," Giles pulled his glasses off and polished them in thought, "Kakistos is such an old vampire that he can't assume a normal human appearance anymore, the demon within has partially subsumed the body...meaning he is technically the strongest vampire that is in existence."

"But he still has the normal vampire weaknesses, doesn't he?" asked Gibson uncertainly.

"Of course," nodded the Watcher. "The problem is getting in a position to exploit the weakness, Kakistos hasn't survived all this time by allowing his enemies to do so."

"But we need to find him first..." mused Xander thoughtfully. "He's a big time crime lord hunting down a Slayer, traveling across the country in pursuit of her. How does he keep running his criminal empire in the meantime?"

"By phone obviously," said Giles.

"Yes, but he's also probably using the Internet." Xander had discovered unbelievably bad things when he had electronically 'repossessed' the assets of that Columbian drug lord to start DWX; the major one being just how organized and almost 'professional' some of these crime organizations were. Of course, they all had ties to legal business, coffee making, being one of them and were well established on the Net.

"Meaning we can trace him to a physical location in Sunnydale," T'Jen said with a raised eyebrow. "We would need to start by setting up an electronic watch on one of Kakistos' legitimate companies and see where it's data flows go, and from there if any financial traffic moves between it and Sunnydale."

"I think we can also narrow it down by deduction as well," mused Giles. "Because he can't appear human anymore he will need to hide out, he will most definitely have hench-vamps to do the 'dirty work' so to speak."

"Meaning a big nest with lots of space, therefore Industrial district, and since he won't want to draw attention he can't have it hooked up legitimately to the Net, meaning an illegal tap on the T3 lines."

"That will be easier to determine," T'Jen acknowledged.

"Umm, can I make a suggestion?" Gibson asked meekly.

"You're a Scooby, Professor, of course you can," Xander grinned, he enjoyed using the X-Men nickname for Gibson.

"Make sure you let Faith slay Kakistos, when the time comes."

"I'm not sure letting her indulge in revenge of her own is a good idea, Gibson," Giles frowned looking worried.

"No, not revenge," the telepath said. "Closure. I don't want to reveal this without Faith's permission. Xander might have already guessed some of it. But the brutal murder of Professor Dormer was extremely traumatic for her _and_ her Slayer aspect. If you don't let her do this...it would be bad."

"Very well," nodded Giles. "I doubt Buffy would've been able to take care of Kakistos by herself anyway."

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**Abandoned Warehouse, Industrial District, Sunnydale**

Xander stared thoughtfully through the port viewport at their target, and turned to his right to get a good sensor analysis of the warehouse. It had barely taken a few minutes to trace the data flows through the T3 lines in the district, finding the bandwidth drain that wasn't supposed to be there had been all of two minutes work. It was rather nice having I.T. four centuries in advance of current standards.

"Is that the place?" asked Faith behind him, she was leaning against the pilot chair of the _Alpha Flyer_; currently phase cloaked and hovering at a height of five meters over the street bordering the warehouse. Her amazement at the small starship had lasted most of the very short trip until he announced they were at Kakistos' suspected hideout.

"Seems like it," said Xander, staring as he brought up the live feed of an infrared scan for her to see. There was clearly vamps in there...some of them were above room temp, indicating that they had fed recently, while others were invisible...he switched to a microwave scan and this time got a clear picture of the interior.

Faith stared at the screen visibly amazed for a second until she saw a lumbering figure on the screen that was most definitely not human, talking to another vampire...who was sitting at a computer.

"That's Kakistos," she tapped the lumbering figure on the screen, "the vamp at the computer will be Mr Trick, his primary organizer and hench-vamp."

"That makes sense actually," mused Xander. "I always wondered how a vampire as ancient as Kakistos could be computer literate."

"That bastard Trick used to be a computer salesman in New York five years ago before he was turned," Faith sneered. "Grew up in the Bronx and is really into that 'I'm from the hood' attitude even as a vamp."

"Such a vampire really needs a dusting," said Xander grimly. "They're usually technophobes...one that actually uses technology in his evil misdeeds is really up there on the order of badness."

"So when is the hit?" she asked intently.

"They don't know we're on to them and you're totally off their radar, so we can afford to wait till after school today, attack during daylight...we can also do some prep and assault planning, erect a portable force field on any sewer access so there's no escape. You cool with that?"

"Five by five, X."

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**Ten hours later...**

Xander felt the transporter beam release him on the second floor catwalk that ringed the warehouse interior. His weapon, which was already in the ready-to-fire posture, only needed to traverse a few inches before three muted coughs sent wooden slugs slamming into the first of five vampires he had the responsibility of killing, crumbling into dust.

He snapped around to the other side, whilst he heard the echoing coughs of Dawn and T'Jen's silenced UMPs. Another grouping of two shots sent another vampire into oblivion. He started to charge down the catwalk, keeping his weapon up, aimed...centre of mass...two more shots coughed from the weapon leaving a cloud of dust for him to charge through.

A loud crash echoed from the bolted main doors, as he tracked his next target that was on the lower floor...two shots resulted in his fourth dusting. Where was the fifth? Oh, his weapon snapped back down the way he came and a three shot grouping in the chest resulted in the vampire being flung off the catwalk as it finally dusted in mid-air.

Xander came to a halt and brought his weapon to bear on the center of the warehouse, where a snarling Kakistos..._yuck, that is one ugly bastard_, stood next to a vampire in a fancy business suit wearing an expression of utter shock. From start to finish the entire exercise of wasting the thirteen hench-vampires had hardly been a minute. Amazing what up to the second tactical intelligence could do.

T'Jen was on the east side of the warehouse also covering the two remaining vamps with her weapon and Dawn on the North-West. Xander had ended up in a South-West position. As a result they each had clear and overlapping fields of fire on Kakistos.

Speaking of which, Xander noted that the ancient vampire had ugly red skin, with cloven hands and feet...Mr Trick's head didn't seem to know which way to turn as he stared at each of them with a terrified yet shifty look on that dark skinned face.

The three Scoobies had dressed for intimidation factor, black clothes, ski masks, combat vests and flaring black trench coats.

The main door leading into the warehouse burst open, snapping the chains that had kept it closed. Kakistos and Trick were forced to dive for cover as sunlight penetrated deep into their 'former' lair.

Two figures could be seen backlit for a moment before the doors shut to reveal Faith and Buffy, both armed with Mek'leth's and promising a world of pain and hurt with their expressions.

"Faith!" growled Kakistos, the guy's voice sounded like a deep drum.

"Well, it looks like our mark has come to us," grinned Trick uncomfortably. "Where'd you scrounge the backup girl? Now the other Slayer I understand but..." he glanced up at Xander.

"Now what gives you the impression that I would tell you a damn thing you shifty bloodsucker?" growled Faith, twirling her Mek'leth's easily.

"Can't blame a brother for trying," shrugged Trick.

"X," said Faith pointedly. Xander took his cue and two shots of his weapon later sent Mr Trick to join the impressive amount of dust collecting in the warehouse.

"Just you, me and B now asshole," spat Faith at Kakistos and promptly charged down the ancient vampire.

However, Kakistos showed immediately why he had survived to be as old as he was. With impressive reflexes despite being so big, he intercepted Faith's attack and gave her a punch which sent her flying into a bunch of large wooden beams leaning against the wall. She hit the floor as the beams began tumbling around her.

Buffy weighed in next and actually managed to get a few slashes into the vampire, before he also connected with another punch that sent her crashing to the ground. Kakistos stomped over to Faith just as she was getting up, picking her up by the shirt and punched her in the face twice, roaring loudly all the while.

Buffy genuflected to a vertical base and charged Kakistos' back, she led with a roundhouse kick to the back of his knee, and followed it up with a backhand to his head. This caused Faith to tumble out of his grip as he turned to deal with Buffy and he blocks her next strike with the Mek'leth. She span round and managed to connect with the hiltblade directly into the vampires' face.

Kakistos roared with pain as he stumbled back, clutching his face – which was already somewhat mutilated thanks to Faith...it gave the opening and Buffy plunged the reverse end of her other Mek'leth into the ancient vampire's chest...only for nothing to happen. The stake end of the weapon remained buried in his hide, which was apparently too tough and thick for a traditional staking.

Kakistos roared and grabbed Buffy by the hair, lifting her easily and throwing her back. She got up and charged in again, connecting with a punch to the face. He tried to connect with his own retaliatory punch but she managed to duck it and snap kicked perfectly onto the round end of the Mek'leth's hilt, burying the stake even deeper in Kakistos...but still he wouldn't dust. Again the vampire managed to grab her and threw her against the wall.

Xander saw Faith slowly recovering from her daze on the floor as Kakistos moved toward the prone Buffy.

"I guess you need a bigger stake, Slayer!" laughed the ancient vampire maniacally.

Faith was up on her feet and grabbing one of the wooden beams she had landed in, Xander noticed the broken end of it..._she couldn't be_...

She lifted it up over her shoulder and before Kakistos could turn his attention back to her charged with the beam and ran the vampire through with it so that it nigh exploded out of his back.

Kakistos looked down at the massive beam that had seemed to sprout out of him and then at Faith, before literally turning into a bomb of ash that crumbled into a heap on the floor. Buffy stared in amazement at the massive 'stake' that her sister Slayer had used.

Faith heaved a few heavy breaths and stared down at the pile of ashes, before chucking away the beam. Buffy stood achingly and joined her in staring at the pile.

"You hungry?"

"Starved," replied Faith, a grin with a tinge of sadness in her eyes formed on her features. "For you, Dorry."

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**DWX Campus**

Xander found Faith sitting on the edge of the Koi pond on the grounds of the campus, her legs tucked under her as she chucked food into the water for the various fish inside. It was a nice relaxing spot, especially considering the sound of the trickling water only added to its value as a place to recharge.

"Do you mind if I join you?" She merely shook her head in response. He deposited himself a few feet to her left and stared into the pool as well, allowing the peaceful moment to wash over him.

"What's the word from the Watchers?"

Xander emerged from himself and gave her a sidelong glance. "Giles will be your interim Watcher until another can be assigned to you, meaning your stay here is assured."

"What's to stop my new Watcher from deciding to pack up somewhere else?"

"The Council feels better with two Slayers guarding the hellmouth...Kakistos is quite the notch in the belt Faith, so they're willing to accede somewhat to your request."

"Nice of them," she mumbled.

"Listen...I'm no Counselor Troi, but...I know a lot about what it's like coming from a shit family, if ya ever wanna whale out your frustrations or that anger I know you carry...give me a call, okay? Don't bottle it. Nothing good comes from it."

Faith again only nodded. She was not one for mushy emotions it seemed. Xander startled as he felt his mobile phone ringing and pulled it out. He pressed the answer button.

"Hello? Ah, Agent Scully...yes...what happened?...Mulder was what?! How the...yes, you think an actual MIB is in him?...shit, Okay...I'll be there as soon as I can."

He hanged up the phone and shook his head in amazement. "Unbelievable. Let's just screw around with the space-time continuum. Assholes."

"Is that to do with that alien you've got locked up?" asked Faith curiously.

"It's related, yes," he sighed. "Welcome to Whackiness-R-Us, Faith Lehane."

"Glad to be here," she retorted wryly.

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_A/N: I searched and searched for__ the name of Faith's first Watcher. Finally found it in the Buffyverse _Faith _novel 'Go ask Malice'. I know it's not strictly 'canon' but then neither is this. I'll expound on Professor Dormer later in my story_. _I also considered doing a Faith discovers DWX tech and Xander scene – but I've had enough of doing that. Urgh._ _I'll let you, the reader, imagine that for yourselves._


	13. Chapter 13 Janus

**Chapter 13 – Janus**

**Washington DC**

Xander in his Mr E disguise knocked on the door of Mulder's apartment and waited to be admitted. He stood patiently with his briefcase in hand as the door was opened a crack to reveal a fraction of Agent Scully's face.

"Greetings Agent Scully," said Xander with a nod.

The door closed, a fumbling and clatter of the chain was heard, and then it opened again and Scully allowed him entrance. He noticed immediately that her FBI service pistol was in her hand. Clearly she wasn't taking any chances.

"Mr E," she greeted finally, closing the door.

"I must say," Xander eyed the main living room, "that this MIB at least agrees with Mulder's apartment, it's practically spotless."

"You ain't seen nothing yet," declared Scully and walked into a door that was supposedly a bedroom, which Mulder never used except as a storage area. The room beyond was … spotless again, but the large king size four poster water bed decorated in a leopard pattern with a large mirror facing down on the bed's occupants in addition to the presence of Champagne and a gift basket containing various items of…intimate nature…

"I'd rather not ask," Xander stated matter-of-factly, his eyes fell to the _form _of Fox Mulder chained to the bedpost with fluffy pink handcuffs. 'Form' being the operative word because currently Fox Mulder was not himself – residing inside his body was instead an Area 51 MIB Agent by the name of Morris Fletcher.

Xander was sure Scully was telling the truth in an instant, because Mulder would never have such an expression of petulance combined with irritation on his face. He activated his internal subspace sensors and scanned Mulder – as it wouldn't be a good idea to use any of his gadgets in view of this MIB.

"So you say this happened while the craft flew directly over you?" he asked for clarification, puzzling over the odd readings he was getting from Mulder.

"Yes," nodded Scully.

"So who are you?" asked Fletcher-Mulder rudely.

"Do you really expect me to answer you?" Xander gave Fletcher a sardonic look.

"No, suppose not," conceded Fletcher-Mulder, "though you have the look of someone in the know – so I assume you're the cavalry, so to speak. Which agency? No don't tell me…black ops military whom developed a conscience…nope…you have a Brit accent, MI6? I thought you guys were all on the team…"

"Shut it," said Xander in his best unemotional Data-tone, adding to the look was his face utterly devoid of expression, his eyes boring into the babbling mibby. Fletcher-Mulder seemingly had good survival instincts…because he stopped speaking abruptly. He turned to Scully and shook his head. "This event implies a displacement effect with an improperly calibrated continuum distortion field causing space to fold in a completely incorrect geometry within the vicinity of objects around the craft."

Scully and Fletcher-Mulder just stared.

"Don't even pretend you understood that," Fletcher-Mulder demanded of Scully, and then turned to Xander incredulously. "And are you telling me you actually _believe_ her?"

"Of course I believe her," Xander raised an enquiring eyebrow. "Do you understand Agent Scully?"

"I understand the words taken separately and some of the basic concepts…but you're talking about technology that somehow folds space and that's a bit beyond me."

"Doesn't matter, fixing this mess shouldn't be a problem if we have the right data to work with…what puzzles me is you Mr Fletcher, why did you not report this effect to your superiors? They know the kind of technology they're dealing with, they'd believe you."

"As I told Miss Trigger happy," groused Fletcher-Mulder, "I've got two moron kids who'll probably kill me for the insurance money and an overbearing wife. An overvalued mortgage on a house that's half the value. And being an MIB isn't all it's cracked up to be."

"So you're using this unfortunate event to rob another man of his life, and leave him with your mess in the process."

"_Life?_" Fletcher-Mulder snorted. "What life? Mulder hasn't slept in his own bedroom for all the years he's been living here. Probably hasn't gotten laid in all that time either…loser."

"And you call what you do better? How many lives have you ruined in you and your agency's quest to protect your 'truth' from the world? How many people have you had 'disappeared' Mr Fletcher?"

Any further argument was interrupted by the phone ringing. Scully made no move to answer it, and was clearly waiting for the answering machine to pick up. There was a beep as it did so and Mulder's voice began speaking. However, it was immediately clear that this was not Mulder's original greeting message. "_Hello, hello. I'm very busy entertaining a _special _guest. Leave a message and I'll get back to you_."

Scully looked especially disgusted at hearing that, while Fletcher-Mulder smiled in embarrassment.

"_Agent Mulder, I'm trying you one last time. Are you or are you not interested in the classified information I have to give you? Please pick up the phone if you're there_," said a gruff and pointed voice on the speaker of the answering machine.

Scully walked over and motioned with her pistol to Fletcher-Mulder to pick it up, as it was on the night stand. He did so reluctantly and held the phone so that both he and Scully could hear what was said. Xander had no trouble picking it up with his highly sensitive ears.

"Mulder," Fletcher-Mulder said.

"_Agent Mulder, listen very carefull_y."

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**Little A'Le Inn, Rachel, Nevada**

Xander sat behind the wheel of one of DWX's company cars; a dark blue Subaru Impreza WRX STi GC8F, with license plates suitably disguised using technomagic with the same Psychic ID effect that his wallet had. Scully was in the passenger seat giving Fletcher-Mulder his instructions for the rendezvous with Mulder's contact – the man who had put the two Agents out there near Area 51 in the first place, to see the Skrit Na reverse engineered craft in action.

"All right, let's run through this one more time. I'll go in there alone, just like you told me to. He'll be wearing a blue Buffalo Bills cap," recited Fletcher-Mulder in a resigned fashion.

"And?" Scully asked expectantly.

"And if I try and slip out the back door," the MIB agent pointed a finger at his own head like a gun and mocked, "da-da-da dee-dee-dee."

"Get going," she ordered.

"Can't we start over? You know, do that thing with the handcuffs?" Fletcher-Mulder pleaded pathetically. Scully's only reply was to pull back on the hammer of her pistol. "Probably not your scene," muttered the MIB as he stepped out of the car and walked into the quaint alien themed inn.

Xander reached into a pocket and produced a Tricorder (suitably disguised to look contemporary) tapped a few times on the touch screen, and soon sound and a video feed from small lapel pin that he had sneaked onto Fletcher-Mulder's jacket was displayed. Scully looked suitably impressed as he hooked the Tricorder onto a docking station on the dashboard.

The image jumbled a bit as the man was walking around the bar, looking for the contact, trying to be casual about it. Finally, Fletcher-Mulder seemed to spot the man they were looking for as he strode off to a booth and sat opposite an older man in jeans, jacket and a checked shirt underneath with greying hair covered by a Buffalo Bills cap. When the man looked up into the tiny camera Scully gasped.

"_You're the guy?_" asked Fletcher-Mulder, also in amazement.

"_Sit down_," ordered the older man intently, command voice ringing.

"It's General Wegman," Scully shook her head in disbelief. "He's the Air Force General in charge at Area 51." Xander couldn't' imagine someone with that kind of background turning informant, yet here it was before their eyes.

"_Well, I'll be damned." _Fletcher-Mulder sat down opposite the General. "_You sabotaged a UFO?_"

"_Keep your voice down. I didn't intend for it to crash, Agent Mulder. I just meant to disable the stealth module so you could see it_."

"_What, are you, like, disgruntled?"_

"_You make me sound like some postal clerk. What you came for is on the floor by your feet."_

The camera couldn't pick up the view, but their viewing was interrupted as suddenly the rear door of the Impreza opened and a middle aged man entered with thinning dark blonde hair. Xander was an instant away from turning around and knocking the man out – when his internal sensor registered the same distorted space around this individual as around Fletcher-Mulder.

"Scully. Mr E." The man said, rather startled – confirming it.

"Mulder, good to _see _you again, as it were," Xander chuckled.

"What are you both doing here?"

"Trying to help you," Scully said obviously, warmth had entered her voice now.

"I've got a good idea what happened, Agent Mulder," Xander said. "To do anything to rectify this though I need the flight data recorder from that craft."

"Got it, and I'll do what I can," nodded Mulder-Fletcher, "I can't stay long; my 'wife' is already suspicious enough as it is." Xander handed over a subspace mobile phone to Mulder. "Stay in touch." The altered FBI agent nodded in gratitude and jumped out of the vehicle, heading back toward the Inn.

Xander and Scully turned back to the Tricorder screen to see that Fletcher-Mulder had concluded his meeting with the General and was walking away and heading outside…only to stop dead when a group of men also in black suits, entered the Inn's front door.

"Blast," cursed Xander as Fletcher-Mulder ducked into the Men's Room of the Inn before he was spotted. The altered MIB hurried to hide along the side of the toilet stalls and the wall. "Now how is he going to get out of there?"

"There's nothing we can do, we can't afford to be spotted by those men by charging in there to the rescue." Scully pointed out, but didn't look happy about it.

They turned to the Tricorder again as they heard the door to the Men's Room open and Mulder-Fletcher walked into view, going towards a sink and starting to wash out stains that he had somehow picked up…it looked like he had been splashed in the face with something. He looked up into the mirror and spotted the reflection of Fletcher-Mulder holding a brown paper bag.

Mulder-Fletcher scowled and turned around glaring at Fletcher-Mulder. "_So you're the one who wants my life? I assume that includes all the ass-kickings."_

"_Oh no…you don't want to do this,"_ said Fletcher-Mulder coming out of his hiding place and holding up his hands in surrender. Mulder clearly did and rushed up to the altered MIB and slammed him against the wall.

"_Yeah, I do."_ Mulder-Fletcher said darkly.

"_Jeff's outside_," warned Fletcher-Mulder, referring to the other MIBs in the Inn.

"_So what?"_

"_If he sees us together, we're both dead. Especially when he sees this_." Fletcher-Mulder held open the paper back with the dark black data recorder in it.

"_You take that to Scully right now_," Mulder-Fletcher shook the MIB threateningly.

"_You must have some sort of waxy buildup. I said Jeff's here. No way am I going out there until he leaves. You sneak it past him. You're his buddy_."

"_His buddy? He doesn't trust me as far as he can throw me. You saw to that_."

"I think our only hope is that General Wegman can do something, he'll certainly notice the MIBs as well," Xander crossed his fingers that that would be the case. Both Mulder and Fletcher was distracted at that moment, and suddenly both rushed into a toilet stall, locked it behind them and stood on the toilet to hide their feet, bracing themselves against the sides. The reason became apparent when the bathroom door opened. They apparently didn't want to take a chance on Jeff the MIB checking the bathroom.

The person out of view paced back and forth a moment before stopping dead.

"_Hey,"_ said Mulder-Fletcher.

"_Hey,"_ replied the owner of the voice. The two altered men got out of the stall and General Wegman came into view looking gravely at both.

"Thank goodness," Xander shook his head in relief.

"_Any ideas General?"_ asked Mulder-Fletcher.

"_Perhaps_," grunted Wegman, and glared at Fletcher-Mulder. "_Morris, I suppose that's you in there, heh?" _Fletcher-Mulder's reaction was out of camera view. "_Doesn't matter now, we're all in the same boat, and to get out of this, we're going to need a beer._"

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General Wegman emerged from the bathroom ten minutes later and approached the group of MIBs.

"Jeff," he greeted the lead MIB, who seemed to stand at attention.

"General Wegman."

"You men, come with me," he pointed imperiously at other MIBs, leading them outside the inn into the parking lot. Jeff hurried in the General's wake, looking confused.

"Sir... What are we, uh...?"

The General was undeterred and stopped in a few meters, pointing towards Mulder-Fletcher, who was walking across the other side of the small parking lot, with a brown paper bag in his hand.

"There. Detain that man."

The MIBs hurried to obey and rushed over to Mulder-Fletcher who looked appropriately startled as they grabbed his arms to stall his movement.

"Hey guys," said Mulder-Fletcher with a grin.

"What's in the bag, Morris?" asked Jeff pointedly, coming closer.

"It's, uh…beer."

"You sure it's not a flight data recorder?" asked General Wegman sternly.

"No, no, it's beer," said Mulder-Fletcher looking confused as to all the fuss.

Jeff walked over, looking into the bag. It was indeed beer. At that moment a car drove off, attracting everyone's attention, allowing Mulder-Fletcher to nod subtly at Wegman. _Mission complete_.

Xander pushed his car into a higher gear and powered away from the Inn, Scully with flight data recorder in hand and Fletcher-Mulder looking back at the hapless MIBs.

"Suckers," chuckled Fletcher-Mulder, looking oddly satisfied at having outwitted his former colleagues.

"I need a place with some pretty impressive computers to do the analysis, know where to go Agent Scully?"

"Yes," she said, looking uncomfortable for some reason.

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**The Lone Gunmen Office **

Xander stood patiently next to Scully and Fletcher-Mulder outside the ground floor door of an old building in Washington's Industrial district. He noticed the small camera pointing down, looking at them and forced himself not wave into it. Finally, there was a loud buzzing sound from the door and Scully turned the handle, leading them into a staircase that looked like it hadn't seen a cleaning in quite a while.

They went up three flights and waited at another door, on which Scully knocked in a specific pattern. Finally, multiple locks could be heard being disengaged on the other side of the door, and it was opened.

The man in the threshold was short, balding, but still had long hair tied in a ponytail around the back of his head, looked to be in his late fifties, with big glasses perched on his nose. He dressed himself in a way highly odd for his age; colourful shirt, with a biker's overcoat, fingerless gloves, and somewhat torn jeans…he looked like a sixties radical.

He gave a smile to Fletcher-Mulder, "Mulder... If I'd known you were coming I would have made more salsa." His grin turned very appreciative as he looked at Agent Scully. "Agent Scully, who is our guest?"

"This…this is Mr E," she answered.

"Ah, the new informant you guys landed," the man stuck his hand out to Xander, which he accepted. "Thanks for saving Mulder and Scully's lives out there in the Antarctic, we really appreciate it. The name's Frohike." Xander nodded with a grin and they proceeded into the main office.

It was a large room, festooned with computer equipment, printers, posters, electronics and various tools. The place also seemed to double as a hangout, since there was a TV and sofa in one corner. On a central table in the room, were more computers and various newspapers entitled 'The Lone Gunmen.' One main headline was –'_Government Microwave weapons and you, how to protect yourself_.'

_Ah, so this is _The_ Lone Gunmen_, thought Xander. He often did research on the Net on any possible Syndicate activity reported by all the 'conspiracy buffs' and 'theorists' and tried to corroborate what they said with the regular scans DWX did of Earth. Surprisingly, a lot of the conspiracy nuts were quite right in some aspects of what they said and published.

The other two men in the trio stood from the sofa.

"Greetings Mr E," said a man, who was dressed extremely conservatively in tailored suit, he seemed like day in comparison to Frohike's night in that respect. He wore a goatee on his thin face and his eyes were extremely perceptive. "John Fitzgerald Byers."

"Langley," greeted his companion simply. This guy looked like he came straight from Hawaii in terms of his dress, Xander found it slightly eerie…it was how he used to dress before The Halloween incident. Long blonde hair framed Langley's broad face, his eyes also covered with big glasses. "It's nice to see you actually exist, because believe me, you don't exist anywhere 'officially' on any government computer system I've hacked, black or official."

"Scully, have you been asking these gentlemen to find my home address?" Xander tut-tutted.

Agent Scully nodded unapologetically. "We had to try."

"Good, because I don't have one," grinned Xander. "Shall we get down to business." He placed the flight data recorder on the central desk.

Langley picked it up, looking interested. "Who crashed?"

"Who, what, why. We need to know everything that's on that data recorder," Scully requested intently.

"It's similar in size and shape to the FDRs on the SR-71," Byers mused also inspecting it.

"Well, that's definitely not standard issue," Frohike pointed to all the extra dataports running out of the blocky recorder.

"Oh no, it wouldn't be, since it belongs to a top secret military craft, reverse engineered in Utah from a Colonist ship and then test flown in Nevada," explained Xander giving a raised eyebrow at Fletcher-Mulder who looked disgruntled. "It crashed after its stealth module was disabled, probably not a good idea, since it's probably an integrated system. It also led to some _interesting_ side effects."

"You're kidding!" said Langley in astonishment, looking at the data recorder eagerly.

"Oh, great, just blurt it out already," groused the altered MIB.

"Afraid of the truth, mibby?" sneered Xander.

"What's with him?" Frohike looked in askance at Mr E and Mulder.

"This is not Agent Mulder," Xander gestured to Fletcher-Mulder. "One of the side-effects I mentioned was that the gravitational displacement coil of the craft was all out of whack."

Fletcher-Mulder looked sullen and waved weakly at the Lone Gunmen. "My name is Morris Fletcher. I work inside Area 51. I assumed Mulder's identity through a warp in the space-time continuum."

The Lone Gunmen as one began to laugh, thinking it a prank, but stopped when they saw that none of their three guests was joining in, and that Scully was looking dead serious. "It's the truth," she said.

Fletcher-Mulder looked at Frohike mockingly. "Trust me, little man, I ain't him. Oh, I love you guys. I really do. I mean, you're the "Lone Gunmen," aren't you? You guys are my heroes. I mean, look at this crap you print."

"We uncover the truth," countered Byers defensively.

"Oh, the truth. Well, see that's what's so great about you monkeys. Not only do you believe this horse pucky that _we_ create, you broadcast it as well. I mean, look at this." Fletcher-Mulder held up a Lone Gunmen newspaper with the headline '_Saddam testing Mandroid Army in Iraqi Desert'_. Xander had to admit that was not one of the Gunmen's best efforts. "There is no Saddam Hussein. This guy's name is John Gillnitz. We found him doing dinner theatre in Tulsa. Did a mean King and I. Plays good ethnics."

"You're trying to say that Saddam Hussein's a government plant?" Langley was incredulous.

"I'm saying I invented the guy. We set him up in '79. He rattles his saber whenever we need a good distraction. Ah... If you boys only knew how many of your stories I dreamed up while sitting on the pot."

"What stories?" Frohike looked like he wanted to kick Fletcher's ass.

"Oh, I'm sorry Melvin, that's classified," Fletcher-Mulder said condescendingly.

"Are you finished, Fletcher?" Xander asked pointedly, ripping the newspaper from him and forcibly pushing him down in a seat.

"Yeah," said the MIB, suddenly cowed again.

"Now, if we can get started gentlemen," Xander said moving over to a computer that looked like it was the fastest one in the office. They interfaced the FDR with a compatible data link, which took a few minutes, as one had to be put together. Then once they had managed to render data onto the computer they had to break the standard encryption. Langley was an expert hacker so had quite a few tricks up his sleeves, Xander of course, with twenty fourth century IT behind him, showed the Gunmen a few new tricks.

The encryption on the FDR was laughable to Xander's standards, only 512 bit; he could've broken that in his sleep.

"Amazing," Langley eyes eagerly scanned the screen, as Xander showed him a decryption subroutine that would easily worm its' way through almost any of the standard encryptions in use by the military.

"What is it?" Scully stood from the sofa, where she had been waiting for them to do their thing.

"This baby records the telemetry of 28 systems including airspeed, fuselage torque and delta-v," Byers pointed to each data set rendered on the screen.

"Yeah, all the usual readouts, but what are these?" Frohike pointed to a grouping of extra readouts.

"Tachyon flux…gravitational displacement," Byers read from the screen in amazement.

"A few of the systems needed for warping space and directing gravity, typical Roswell Grey technique…" Xander muttered as he stared at the scrolling data.

"All right, I want you guys to analyze that data, Morris…" Scully turned to see that the MIB was holding up another Gunmen paper with the title '_Minx or Mandroid'_.

"This is one of mine," Fletcher-Mulder said smugly.

"Get your butt in gear," Scully's tone brooked no opposition and gave the MIB a flat stare.

"You're gonna miss me when I'm gone," he sing-songed.

"Fat chance, laughing boy," sneered Frohike in disgust.

"Back off, sneezy," retorted Fletcher-Mulder, stalking towards the Gunman.

"Enough," Scully stepped in between them, and shoved the MIB towards the door, and called over her shoulder. "Call me when you guys have some answers."

"Wait," Xander raised a finger, still staring at the screen. "I have the solution."

"What? Already?" Scully looked back in askance.

"Yes," Xander said simply with a shrug. "I just needed this FDR to confirm what I already suspected. One of fundamental principles of science is that nature abhors a vacuum, right? Air moves from a high pressure to low pressure. Well, the same thing applies here. This warp in space-time is purely artificial; it's an unnatural 'vacuum'."

"So you're saying this thing will just reverse itself naturally?" Scully asked hopefully.

"Yes, but it's not that simple," Xander qualified hurriedly. "You can't just sit on your laurels and wait it out, both Mulder, Fletcher and everyone who was in the vicinity of the crash needs to be at these exact coordinates," he picked up a pen, paper and scribbled GPS coordinates onto it, "at this exact time. In essence, you have to be in the path of the realigning space-time when it occurs."

Scully took the piece of paper and frowned, "This is close to Area 51."

"To be exact it's where the whole thing started originally," Xander nodded.

"It's that simple?" Fletcher-Mulder looked astonished.

"Why wouldn't it be?" shrugged Xander. "This way is best for everyone; if you're caught in the space-time wave, from your perspective the last few days will not have happened at all – meaning you won't be able to bust General Wegman for what he did."

"What about the rest of us?" Langley stared with impressed eyes at his fellow Gunmen.

"Our memories of these events will be unaffected, from our point of view, Mulder, Scully and Fletcher will have completed a causality loop," Xander explained, "but do not mention this to them, in fact, its best if it's not mentioned at all in the future."

"Yeah, I doubt even Mulder would believe it," Frohike chuckled.

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**Holodeck, DWX, Sunnydale**

Xander, dressed in a simple white karate Gi, with matching white pants and bare feet settled into a simple horse stance, arms tucked in, hands ready, alertly watching his opponent. They were in a classic dojo house, with bamboo floors and paper walls with Chinese characters everywhere – most which were Confucian idioms, whilst polished wooden pillars reinforced the structure.

Faith stood a few feet away, dressed similarly and watching him with the same intensity, though was beginning to show frustration. Suddenly, the Slayer exploded into action, leading with a strike that Xander deflected with his left hand; she followed it up with a kick to his ribs that he also deflected with his right hand but much more powerfully that briefly upset her balance, lightning quick he pounced on it and struck her with both palms…with only enough strength to slightly wind her and push her back two feet.

"Don't assume that when someone deflects he won't put any power into it," advised Xander seriously. "It's a form of aggressive defence, which punishes your opponent for attempting to hit you."

"Got it," nodded Faith.

"Good, now try again."

They came at each other again and traded strikes and kicks in blurring movements; moving back and forth across the dojo, adjusting to their relative positions, trying to gain the upper hand. Which Xander suddenly did by stepping close to Faith as she was delivering a roundhouse kick intended for his head…he struck with both hands towards her upper left leg and it sent her crashing to the floor.

He grinned at her and helped her up, she looked furious with herself. "Easy Faith, don't beat yourself up at losing to me, I've got faster reflexes than you will ever have, and am stronger, being an android and all that jazz."

"Yeah, I kinda lose that in the heat of the moment," she lamented.

"Well, you've got the same improvisational style of fighting, like Buffy, although you've had a bit more formal martial arts training than she does…Ninjitsu with a bit of Krav Maga?"

"Yeah, my Watcher preferred those two," Faith nodded. "We squeezed in whatever training we could when we were on the run from Kakistos."

"Excellent styles both which I think you should continue learning, you can get that from me if you wish, or Giles, though he isn't as well versed in them."

"I think I'll stick with you, if you don't mind X," Faith's grin was wry. "He already has B on his plate, I don' wanna add to that."

"Very well, in that case, from now on don't kick for the head…it's fancy, it's flashy, yeah, but it takes ages to deliver and opens you way up for opportunistic attacks. The highest kick I want to see you deliver is targeting the upper thigh, groin and everything below…got it? Good. Let's begin again…"

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The name on his business card was Terrence Harth. It was one of many identities that he had. His current cover was as a representative of an American electronics firm and he could give a lengthy discourse on RF, IR, and microwave com systems that his company worked in. His name was not Harth. He was known in CIA's Operations Directorate as Clark, but his name wasn't Clark either, even though that was the name under which he lived and raised his family. Mainly he was an instructor at CIA's school for field officers, known as "The Farm," but he was an instructor because he was pretty good at what he did, and for the same reason he often returned to the field.

Clark was a solidly built man, over six feet tall, with a full head of black hair and a lantern jaw that hinted at his ancestry, along with the blue eyes that twinkled when he wanted them to, and burned when he did not. Though well over forty, Clark did not have the usual waistline flab that went along with a desk job, and his shoulders spoke volumes about his exercise program. For all that, in an age of attention to physical fitness he was unremarkable enough, save for one distinguishing mark. On his forearm was the tattoo of a grinning red seal. He ought to have had it removed, but sentiment did not allow it. The seal was part of the heritage he'd once chosen for himself. When asked about it during a flight, he'd reply, honestly, that he'd once been in the Navy, then go on to lie about how the Navy had financed his college education in electronics, mechanical engineering, or some other field.

Clark actually had no college or graduate degree, though he'd accumulated enough special knowledge along the way to qualify for a half dozen of them. The lack of a degree would have - should have - disqualified him for the position which he held in the Agency, but Clark had a skill that is curiously rare in most of the Western intelligence agencies. The need for it was also rare, but the need was occasionally real, and a senior CIA official had once recognized that someone like Clark was useful to have on the payroll. That he'd blossomed into a very effective field officer - mainly for special, short, dangerous jobs - was all the better for the Agency. Clark was something of a legend, though only a handful of people at Langley knew why. There was only one Mr. Clark.

He walked into the rather modestly appointed lobby of DWX Innovations and was already impressed at the security he spotted. Sitting behind the desk intensely staring at an amazingly thin computer screen whilst polishing nails, was an attractive brunette secretary who looked to be just out of High School. Clark checked his watch, confirming the time for his afternoon appointment and took the final steps towards the artfully designed desk.

"I'm Mr Harth from General Electric. I believe I'm expected."

The secretary gritted her teeth at the screen, ignoring him for a moment, before her face brightened and she looked up with hazel eyes. "Yes, Mr Giles will be here soon, you can have a seat over there." She pressed a button on her multifunction phone with one hand, while gesturing to some comfortable couches lining one wall of the lobby.

John Clark nodded in thanks and walked over to the couches, but did not sit down and merely dropped his briefcase on them. Unbuttoning the jacket of his suit and taking a leisurely stroll around the lobby, scanning the numerous large picture frames highlighting the various devices and advancements DWX was responsible for. It was an impressive list. He had had no idea that the new LCD screens everyone was raving about, was actually a brainchild of this company. It also surprised him that the fifty-percent efficient Solar Panel was also a product of DWX. The man-portable version of it was all the rage in the Special Operations community as a way of keeping electronics going without the need for carrying bulky, heavy batteries.

The lobby elevator bell tolled and the doors opened to reveal a tall man, looking slightly older than Clark, with a touch of grey around his temples and had a severe, hale look in his eyes. It was one that Clark himself sometimes saw when he looked in the mirror. He wore a suit that looked like it came straight from Saville Row and his face brightened into a rather polite smile as he extended a hand for Clark to shake.

"Ah, Mr Harth, pleasure to meet you. I'm Mr Giles, Director of DWX." The British accent was rather pronounced.

"Pleasure," said Clark, shaking the quite strong hand, not something you'd expect from a suit and a man this age.

"Follow me, please."

Clark found himself escorted through a set of adjoining doors and down a nicely carpeted hallway arrayed with mahogany doors down its entire length. Giles led the way into the closest door and they entered a very impressive conference room. Not only was it well furnished but it looked extremely high tech; large screens with the stylized letters DWX spiralling endlessly dotted the entire room, each chair at the table looked highly ergonomic and in front of each seat, seamlessly moulded into the large table itself, were touchscreens for each person to seemingly input data on rendered keyboards.

"Have a seat, Mr Harth, anything to drink?" Giles was standing in the corner of the room where a small refrigerator sat.

"Just water, will be fine, thank you."

"Very well, and since it's been one of those days for me - a bourbon," the Director poured the drinks and handed Clark the ice cold glass, while he grabbed his own and sat down with a huff at the head of the table. After taking a long sip from the alcoholic drink he eyed Clark. "Let's get down to business then, what is it that General Electric wishes to propose?"

"We wish to acquire the license to manufacture a communications system that you recently filed the patent for, the Horizon." Clark began carefully. The man seated across from him was looking very perceptive indeed.

"Ah yes, the miniaturized digital RF com system with triple the range and half the weight," mused the Director. "To whom do you intend to market the technology?"

"Mainly for police use, though there are obvious civilian applications," Clark replied simply.

"Military?" The Director raised his eyebrows significantly.

"We haven't decided on that, though it's a distinct possibility." The truth was Clark wanted it for the squads he would eventually be using in Operation _Showboat_. He had initially thought to go with a standard satellite relay to coordinate the teams, but when he spied the Horizon system being redflagged by the CIA patent office watch, he jumped at the chance. Thanks to the literal blank cheque he had been given to make _Showboat_ happen he wanted his teams to have this.

Mr Giles stared at him for a few long moments. "Mr Harth, let me make my company's position clear. There is enough strife and war already in this world; we do not want any technology we create and market to add to that. If we find that GE is selling Horizon com sets to the US military, well that license will vanish. Do I make myself clear?"

"Crystal," nodded Clark. Inwardly, he was wondering how the profilers had gotten Giles so wrong. Everything the CIA could dig up on him said that he would not be so averse to the military; born in an influential family in England, fell into the wrong sort of crowd when he was young, reformed himself and continued his studies at Oxford to eventually work in the British Museum of Natural History, then inexplicably quitting that job to come to the US and take up the post of Librarian here in Sunnydale High School, and then founding a multi-million dollar company with a Jenny Calendar as a partner – also a teacher at Sunnydale High- a lot of the accountants in CIA were still scratching their heads at where the start-up capital had come from. But that didn't necessarily point to anything nefarious – it could've come from an off the books inheritance or other forms of assets.

"Very well," nodded Giles pulling out a briefcase from under the table, "let's start talking figures."

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Xander sat with his fingers tented in contemplation as Giles entered his office. He had watched the entire meeting with Mr Harth on his computer via visual sensors.

"What do you think?"

"It went quite well," nodded Giles taking a seat. "We can add quite a few pence to profit column at least." An understatement as usual.

"You think he'll actually listen to us?" Xander grinned.

"Not if the dossier on 'Mr Harth' is accurate, no." Giles shook his head. "It's hard to fathom our capabilities sometimes, and it hits me at the oddest moments. I was just in the same room with a man that the CIA uses for 'special' jobs." He didn't have to elaborate on what 'special' meant. "And I can't believe that they're seriously considering doing this…it's tantamount to an invasion of a foreign country…"

"I know, I know, G-Man, but International law, not to mention the US constitution wasn't designed to protect the people from a Drug cartel that has the same monetary assets as a small country. It seems the President is going after the supply side of the drug equation – lessen the supply, push up the price on the street so high that no one can afford it anymore."

"I can guarantee one thing, it's going to blow up in their faces sooner or later," Giles said darkly. "Sooner or later, the Cartel is going to become wise to the presence of US Special forces, despite their efforts at secrecy…then…they'll bring entire world media in on this."

"G-Man, the local government is all but in the Cartel's pocket anyway."

"Are you actually saying you agree that military force is the answer?" Giles looked in disbelief at Xander.

"No, I'm just saying that…look Giles, you've studied the history of the Federation, and how extensively did you read about the Dominion War?"

"The basics, that it was started by Changeling Founders of the Dominion in the Gamma Quadrant in an attempt to bring the 'solids' under control and bring their version of order into the Alpha Quadrant."

"Well, the military the Founders used was a genetically engineered warrior race called the Jem'Hadar; and they were dependant on a substance known as Ketracel-White that the Founders created to ensure their subservience. One of the Federation's many strategies were to destroy the Dominion's ketracel stocks."

"But the US is not at war with Columbia, and it's not as if it can declare war on a Drug Cartel…"

"The President just did so," Xander said mildly. "Look, I don't agree with it either, but the law enforcement agencies just can't make any headway – it's as if you tried to use a scalpel to kill a Fyarl demon, when you really need a double bladed axe. Of course, the real long term solution is for the American people to stop demanding drugs, and why do they demand it in the first place…to escape the dreary existence of a world that's told them they're a waste of space or demanding too much from them, not to mention the recreational drug users. It's our job to change the world, so that people won't need shit like this."

"There is no easy solution, is there?" Giles sighed taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose wearily.

"There never is."

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**Sunnydale High**

Xander and the rest of the Scoobies walked into the quad after a long day of classes, with yet more to look forward to. Though it was mostly review these days because that all important time had finally arrived.

"And then I was being chased by an improperly filled-in answer bubble screaming, 'none of the above!'" Buffy wryly related one of her latest dreams as result of all the studying she had been doing recently.

"Wow. I hope that wasn't one of your prophecy dreams," Willow said worriedly, and got a pointed look from Buffy in return. "Probably not."

"Hey, you know, I took it last year. I could help you get ready. There's this whole trick to antonyms, but... this isn't the place." Oz nodded thoughtfully at her. "Though with what we know thanks to Xander I wonder if we're gonna ace it."

"Entirely within the realm of possibility, at very least you should all get high marks in the science section." Xander grinned lopsidedly at them all.

"I'm looking forward to the SATs actually. I do well on standardized tests." Cordelia nodded in satisfaction, but replied to the odd looks from the group. "What? I can't have layers?"

They went through the hall doors and emerged into the school near the cafeteria. "So, Buff, study tonight?" Willow enquired.

"Uh, yes on the studying, no on tonight. I'm putting in Mom time. She's been drastic ever since I got back. And Giles is even worse. I'm supervised 24-7."

"She's merely overcompensating for your absence during the summer, Buffy, both of them did miss you an awful lot," Xander led the way into the cafeteria, holding the doors open.

"Yeah, I get that, Xan," Buffy let out an explosive breath, "but it's like being in the Real World house, only real."

Xander spied a new fixture in the cafeteria and inwardly groaned. A table was against one wall, piled with boxes of chocolate bars. Principal Snyder was standing next to it being his usual acerbic self, checking off students names on a clipboard as they each took a box.

"Ooh, candy bars! Lots of 'em!" Willow grinned in appreciation.

Snyder held out a box to Xander as he passed the table. "Principal Snyder, thank you!" He replied wryly as he took the box. "You weren't visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past, by any chance?"

Snyder just gave one of his usual '_You are all a thorn in my side and I wish I could expel you all'_ looks and said, "It's band candy."

"Let's hear it for the band, huh? Very generous." Buffy grinned getting her own box.

"You will sell it to raise money for the marching band." Snyder groused testily. "They need new uniforms."

"Those tall, fuzzy hats ain't cheap, huh?" Xander stared curiously at his box with narrowed eyes.

"I'm sure we love the idea of going all Willy Loman, but we're not in the band," pointed out Buffy reasonably to the resident Fuhrer of Sunnydale High.

"And if I'd handed you a trombone, that would've been a problem, Summers." Snyder said proving once again that reason was an alien concept to the man. "It's candy. Sell it."

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**Science Classroom, Sunnydale High**

Xander with Willow seated next to him were busy idly scribbling temporal mechanics problems on an exam pad, and were attempting to solve the inherent paradox usually involved with time travel. It was a measure of how bored they were; that they were actually doodling on a subject they disliked.

"I heard that there was a secret rule that if a teacher's more than ten minutes late, we can all leave," Cordelia pointed out from the desk in front of them.

"It's Giles' turn to watch study hall. He'll be here." Buffy replied staring into her Mathematics textbook. "He's allergic to late."

"He is wound a little tight," agreed Cordelia. "I had this philosophy book checked out from the library for, like, a year, and he made me pay the fine, even though it was huge." Buffy gave her a pointed look; since she was Miss Rich Queen C. "I was sad to return it. It was perfect for starting conversations with college boys."

Xander chucked his pen down disgustedly, after failing again to account for the EPC variable. "I could so be using my time more productively at DWX, than screwing around here. I'm waiting on some lab results and want to get back to Doc Howser."

"Tell me about it," Willow sighed. "The SATs just can't come soon enough." Xander's words registered with her bored mind. "Hey, what lab results?"

"I ate some of the band candy," Xander explained. "My internal sensors picked up some odd stuff in it."

"What odd stuff?" Willow asked curiously.

"Your usual ingredients found in everyday chocolate candy…but also some very odd organic chemicals that I've never seen before. I'm having the Doc try and extrapolate their purpose."

"Well, I hope it's nothing bad, because I sold all mine after just going to four houses, it's like Trick or Treating in reverse," she grinned at him.

"It's probably just something unique that the company making them cooked up," theorized Xander thoughtfully. "You know, to make it more addictive and sell more."

"Where is Giles already? I'm bored, and he's not here to give me credit for it." Cordelia pouted in annoyance.

Xander stared around, suddenly feeling quite concerned. Giles was a stickler for being punctual. He was never late and if he was, something was wrong. A teacher finally appeared for study hall at that point, but it was not Giles, it was Ms Barton.

"Hey! We're all stuck here, okay? So now let's just sit quietly and," she gestured to a book at the main desk, "pretend we're reading something until we're really sure that old Commandant Snyder's gone. Then we're all outta here!"

"Halleluja," mumbled Xander, while mulling over the odd behaviour. No teacher would so overtly disrespect Snyder in front of other students.

"I guess Giles isn't coming?" Willow stated.

"I guess not," Buffy said, looking concerned.

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**DWX, Sickbay**.

Xander, Dawn and Faith had just finished a joint training exercise in the Holodeck that afternoon when T'Jen had called. All three just stared in astonishment as the door opened to the room and watched as the Vulcan woman kept a firm hold of Doctor Howser who was looking rather out of it.

"I dig the hyposprays, oooh, that thrombic modulator is cool too," the Doc said eagerly in a tone most unlike him and then suddenly pouted when T'Jen shook her head firmly.

"Sit," she said in a tone of command. The Doc crossed his arms and adopted a churlish expression and sat on one of the biobeds – he was acting like a kid.

"T'Jen, what's going on?" Xander said mildly.

"I was here for my monthly checkup and found him behaving in this fashion," she gestured to the Doc. "I believe it has something to do with the inordinate amounts of chocolate he has been eating." She held up the box of candy that Xander had given to the Doc, it was filled with empty wrappers and very few bars were left.

"Can I get some more, please?" moaned the Doc, reaching for it. T'Jen simply pushed him down onto the bed again.

"I take it this means that the chocolate is laced, X?" Faith asked curiously.

"Possibly, I gave it to the Doc to analyze when I detected strange compounds in it," he pulled out a medical tricorder and began to scan the pouting Doctor. He stopped when held the small scanning wand over Howser's head. "There's a small amount of q-flux in his mind, it messing with the emotional centres of his brain."

"That's bad," Doc Howser said in agreement. "I found teensy weensy q-flux in the chocolate…thought it was nothing…oh well. I was wrong!" And he promptly dissolved into irrational giggling.

"Just how widespread was this candy, Xan?" Dawn asked cheerily.

"Snyder was handing them out by the boxes," Xander frowned thoughtfully, putting down the tricorder. "If the students then went out and sold them, or gave them to their parents to eat, factor in the addictiveness aspect then…"

"Every single adult will revert to a state of irresponsible teenage behaviour in the Sunnydale area," T'Jen finished the thought.

"Damn, if that's the case, when the sun sets it's gonna be a vamp free for all tonight," Faith said grimly.

"Okay, here's what we do, T'Jen, sedate the Doc if you please, and call Angel, make sure he's appraised of what going to happen, when you're done, you, Faith and Dawn are gonna suit up and head out in force recon. I'm gonna trace the origin of this candy."

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**The Bronze**

Xander walked into the favourite hangout place of the Scoobies, and pretty much every teenager in Sunnydale, decked in full hunting gear, black trenchcoat hiding his weapons. His efforts to trace the origin of the candy had sent him driving through one end of Sunnydale to the other, since there was only one person who could conceivably know. Snyder. He checked the school, nothing, he checked Snyder's house – a torrid little two storey affair, nothing. Then he smacked himself up the head for being so stupid. If Snyder had also snuck a candy bar, then he was acting like a teenager, and where do they go…the Bronze.

Walking into the place was like stepping into the Twilight Zone. People in their mid thirties and up were going about the place; dancing, mid age couples on the floor were kissing very enthusiastically, and a group of old men were busy pouring a mixture of orange juice and vodka down the throat of one of their own lying down on the bar and singing away joyously to the music played by Oz's band.

He spotted Buffy and Willow gaping at the various scenes in astonishment, and hurried over to them. He wondered why they were here, considering they had said they would be studying for the SATs.

"Hey guys," he greeted with a wave. "There's trouble."

"No kidding," Buffy said as Ms Barton passed them.

"Are you okay, Ms Barton?" Willow asked in concern.

"Oh, I'm cool, Willow." An epiphany seemed to strike the normally stodgy teacher and she said, "Willow...That's a tree." She giggled. "You're a tree!" Willow and Buffy traded astonished looks. "Yeah, are there any nachos in here little tree?"

"A-are you sure you don't need some fresh air, Ms. Barton?" Buffy inquired hesitantly. Ms Barton's response was to laugh hysterically and wade back into the decidedly older than normal dance crowd. "Okay, Xander, what's the sitch?"

"It's the band candy, it's been 'cursed', to make everyone revert to a teenage emotional state," he explained. At that moment the very man or teenager, depending on how you looked at it, that Xander had been searching for arrived on the scene.

"Hey gang!" said Principal Snyder, dancing awkwardly to the music. "This place is Fun City, huh?"

"Principal Snyder?" Buffy asked in shock at seeing the bane of her existence at Sunnydale High act so teenagery.

"Call me Snyder. Just a last name, like..." He swaggered in an attempt to be cool. "Barbarino." He pumped his hands in the air. "Ooh! I'm so stoked. Did you guys see Ms Barton? I think she's wasted." He suddenly laughed. "I'm gonna have to put that in her next performance review…because…I'm the principal! Hah!" Xander shook off his own amazement at this behaviour and abruptly grabbed Snyder before he could disappear back into the crowd. "Hey, watch the shirt, Xanderooney."

"You are going to tell me where you got the band candy from," Xander growled giving Snyder a strong shake, he could have done without being called that. He could see both Willow and Buffy muffling their own amusement with their hands.

"Why do you wanna know?" Snyder asked nervously. Xander's eyes narrowed, thinking about how addictive the stuff was.

"I wanna know so I can get you all some more," he grinned in a mock-friendly fashion.

"Really? Thanks so much Xanderooney, I can take you there…let's go." Snyder said eagerly and started pulling on Buffy and Xander to follow him.

"Willow, go get Oz and meet us outside," Xander said in a suffering tone.

"Sure thing Xanderoo…"

"Not a word…Oz…" Xander pointed sternly.

Willow giggled and hurried off to the stage to fetch her boyfriend.

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They all piled into the Subaru, with Buffy taking the passenger seat, whilst Oz and Willow forced Snyder into the centre of the rear seat and took their places on either side of him. Xander gunned the throttle and sped off out of the Bronze parking lot.

"That was a sobering mirror to look into," commented Oz.

Snyder suddenly found Oz' hair fascinating, staring at it and smiling, "you've got great hair."

"Snyder! Where is the candy?" barked Xander, snapping the balding Principal out of his funk.

"Oh, uh, far edge of the industrial district, Wilson street."

Xander, without slowing down, turned at the next corner, going into a perfectly controlled slide with the car and managed to avoid two cars that had been on the verge of drag racing each other.

"Wow, Xanderooney, you drive like a pro!" commented Snyder with awe.

Xander just growled in reply and went faster.

"Shouldn't we be finding Giles?" Oz fastened his seat belt. "He'll know what's going on, right?"

"I sold him some of my band candy," said Buffy, shaking her head. "He's sweet sixteen again, probably."

"He's still Giles though, right? He's probably a pretty together guy."

"Oh dear," Willow suddenly said with realization.

"Giles at sixteen? Less Together Guy, more Bad-Magic-Hates-The-World-Ticking-Time-Bomb Guy," Buffy explained ruefully. "And I last saw him with my mom, whom I also sold band candy too."

"Well, then I guess your mom's in a lotta trouble." Oz declared mildly. Xander floored the accelerator.

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**Milkbar Factory, Sunnydale Warehouse district**.

Xander sped the Subaru down Wilson Street and immediately spied a large crowd at the far end. Again this made sense with regard to the addictiveness; people running out would want more. He brought the car to a skidding stop and the four Scoobies plus one Principal Snyder climbed out to regard the scene.

It was bedlam. Adults were crowded and shouting around a loading dock, where two guys in Milkbar factory overalls were handing out more boxes of the cursed candy. They closed and secured the car, just in case someone got it into their heads to commit some GTA. Xander and the gang approached the crowd and his eyes caught something that caused him to stop dead in his tracks. Buffy noticed it too and stopped dead too.

Giles and Mrs Summers were at the edge of the crowd, both dressed like…well, teenagers. Giles was wearing ripped jeans, a loose shirt tied around it, and a white T-shirt that was slightly too short for him. Joyce was wearing rather fashionable attire, black jeans that hugged her frame, a grey shirt and black designer jacket, with an embedded scarf and leather high heel shoes. She was quite attractive like this...for a woman in her forties. Xander made a personal note to remind her of this. But it wasn't the attire that caused both Xander and Buffy's astonishment. Both Giles and Joyce were engaging in some serious and rather passionate French kissing.

"Mom? Giles?!" Buffy said, totally aghast at the scene.

Giles, without skipping a beat, broke the kiss but continued to neck Joyce. "Go away. We're busy." And promptly resumed the kiss.

"Mom!" Buffy tried again, it didn't work, so she used a bit of Slayer strength a pulled her mother away.

"Hey!" objected Joyce.

Buffy, ever the fashion conscious and spotting the very expensive, designer jacket asked, "Where did you get that coat? Never mind listen…" Giles interrupted and stepped protectively in front of Joyce and pushed Buffy away.

"Back off!"

"Giles, think about this. You wanna fight me, or you wanna let me talk to my mother?" Buffy said flatly, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently. Apparently, even an emotionally sixteen year old Giles realized that he was no match for a Slayer, and stepped out of the way and reached for a cigarette tucked behind his ear, put it in his mouth swiftly and lit it up, taking a deep drag.

Buffy turned to her mother. "Mom, look at me. Do you know who I am?"

Joyce turned away from looking admiringly at Giles and answered, "Of course. You're Buffy." She said but looked away to the crowd. "Hey, look. They're, they're giving away candy. You want some candy?"

"No, I don't! And you don't need any more, either."

"I'm fine. I can have more if I want." Joyce was very annoyed all of a sudden.

"You are not fine. You need to go home." Buffy said sternly.

"Screw you. I want candy!" Joyce retorted now angry.

"Mom!" Buffy cried in disbelief.

"You wanna slay stuff, and _I'm_ not allowed to do anything about it. Well, this is what _I_ wanna do, so get off my back!"

"Mom, please, this is…"

"Oh, for God's sake," Giles declared angrily and reached for Joyce, pulling her away, "Just let your mum have the sodding candy. C'mon, Joyce..."

"Let them go, Buffy," Xander said shaking his head, holding Buffy back. "They're no use to us."

"Take her home," Buffy insisted sternly to Giles and allowed Xander to lead her away.

"Okay, here's the plan, Buffy and I lead ahead and knock out those factory workers, Willow and Oz, stay behind us with cricket phasers out. Got it?"

They nodded.

The four surged into the crowd, Xander and Buffy easily clearing a path with their strength, towards the loading dock. Buffy stepped onto a crate and easily dispatched one of the men tossing candy to the crowd by punching the back of his knee. He crumpled and fell off the edge of the dock. Xander simply grabbed the other by the foot and pulled him off balance and chucked him onto the crowd who, being _teenagers_ caught the guy for some crowd surfing. Xander and Buffy vaulted themselves onto the dock and pulled Oz and Willow onto it.

Buffy was distracted again, as she saw Giles and her mother at the base of the dock stuffing chocolate bars into their pockets, and went over to them. "Mom!" She reached down and easily pulled her mother up by the arms and onto the loading dock.

"Hey!" objected Joyce, clearly not enjoying being womanhandled by her own daughter.

"Oy! You leave her alone!" Giles cried indignantly.

Xander shook his head at their antics and with a powerful android kick, the door to the factory burst off its hinges and fell to the floor. Giles hopped onto the dock to follow Joyce and the others as they breached the interior of the Milkbar factory.

Buffy pulled her mother into the shipping area and let go telling her sternly, "Stay. Oz, Willow keep an eye on her."

Xander ignored the amusing scene of Buffy acting more maturely than her mother and scanned the interior. The place was piled to the ceiling with cases of Milkbars. Across the room from the conveyor where the boxes were sealed, he saw a man on a phone, listening. He was alone. Giles and Snyder come into the shipping area behind them.

He gestured to Buffy with a non-verbal signal, _human_. She nodded and let him take the lead. Xander stealthily sneaked up behind the guy and as he heard the man speak he realized who the mastermind of this little prank on Sunnydale was. It really should've been obvious.

"Yeah, I've been out there. Town's wide open. You guys can go anytime," said Ethan Rayne, Chaos Mage extraordinaire, and general pain in the ass. Though Xander felt he should be somewhat thanking the man for his Halloween stunt...look at how much good they were doing with it, after all.

"Ethan Rayne," said Xander forbiddingly, his UMP out and ready.

The Chaos Mage turned to face him, Buffy, and the others. Ethan got especially nervous when he saw Giles coming closer at hearing the name. Xander imagined they must've made for an imposing sight. "Might wanna hurry," said Ethan nervously into the phone and hung up.

"Ethan," growled Giles.

"Ripper," acknowledged the Mage mildly.

Ethan wasted no time as he broke out into a fast run, but Xander cut him off easily before he could take more than three strides and grabbed the man by cuff and held him up off his feet easily.

"So Ethan, what are we playing? We're pretty much in a talk-or-bleed situation. Your call." Buffy said as Xander put the Mage down in front of her. Ethan gave a surprised considering look Xander's way, who merely glared at him in reply.

"Hit him," Giles said eagerly.

"I-I'd just like to point out that this wasn't my idea," Ethan said after nervously staring at Giles.

"Meaning...?" Buffy asked.

"I'm subcontracting. It's the Gorches you want. I'm just helping them collect a tribute... for a demon."

"Who are the Gorches?"

"They're a vampire couple, rather famous because they were turned on the day they were married, and they've been on an eternal honeymoon ever since," Xander replied with a frown, referencing his occult database. "But why would they collect a tribute for a demon? Unless, they're indebted to this demon for something."

"I don't know their reason…as I said; I'm just doing a job for money…" Ethan implored.

"He's lying! Hit him!" Giles exclaimed angrily.

"I don't think he is, and shut up," Buffy retorted.

"You're _my_ Slayer," Giles said excitedly, and pointed at Ethan, "go knock his teeth down his thro…"

"Giles!" Buffy interrupted, _Ripper _turned away and started to pace back and forth. "What demon?" she asked of Ethan.

"I don't remember."

Buffy swiftly gave Ethan a solid punch in the nose to aid his memory; Xander caught the Mage and kept him vertical. Giles jumped and swung his fist through the air in victory. "Yes!" Buffy glared at him to shut up.

"Lurconis. Demon named Lurconis. They wanted a way to get the tribute away from people." Ethan winced, holding his hand to stem the blood flowing from his nose.

"So you're just Diversion Guy?" Buffy said in amazement.

"More than a diversion. Well, they said the tribute was big, so big that people would never let them take it. That people had to be out-of-it. And later on, when the candy wore off, they'd blame themselves."

"Fuck!" Xander snapped in realization, as his internal database told him who Lurconis was. He swiftly reached forward and Vulcan neck pinched Ethan into unconsciousness. "C'mon, we have to go."

"I take it Lurconis rang a bell?" Buffy asked.

"We have to get to Sunnydale General, yesterday." Xander grabbed Giles, and hurried everyone out of the factory.

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Oz and Willow remained behind after Xander told them to start vaporizing the contents of the Milkbar factory with their phasers, to stem the tide of childishness and keep Ethan Rayne under guard. Buffy didn't want to leave her Watcher and mother out of sight, before they did something they'd regret later, and there was only place for five people in the Subaru.

So now, it was Xander, Buffy, with Snyder, Joyce and Giles seated in the back; as the car sped powerfully once again through Sunnydale, on the way to the hospital.

"So what's the dealio with Lurconis' tribute?" Buffy asked.

"The tribute to Lurconis is made every thirty years," explained Xander grimly, as he pushed the car into a higher gear. "It's a ritual feeding. And this one's late, so it's probably, a big meal. And…well, Lurconis eats babies."

"Step on it," Buffy said after paling slightly. Xander happily complied.

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**Maternity Ward, Sunnydale General**

Xander stood over the four empty cribs that had held the recent births of the Sunnydale area. He hovered his Tricorder over them, scanning for anything that could help locate them. He tried his best to stop the feeling of sheer anger and rage that was building up in him at this travesty. Demons killing people were not a new thing, but this was a new low for the hellmouth. _Something is going to die for this_. Buffy was holding a tiny identification wristband left in one of the cribs, looking very distressed.

"I didn't see anything. I don't _know_ where they are." The Nurse on duty said, munching on a candy bar, looking irritable while watching the small TV at her station. It took another part of his self-restraint not to bash in the woman's skull – but it wasn't technically her fault. Giles was doing the questioning.

"Something's gonna eat those babies?" Joyce asked, looking sad and worried.

"I think that is so wrong." Snyder shook his head looking rueful.

Giles came into the room, and looked disgusted. The Nurse merely went back to watching TV. "She says she never saw who took them. Dozy cow."

"We _know_ who took them," reiterated Buffy hotly.

"Well, then let's do something. Let's find the demon and, and... kick the crap out of it." Giles asserted.

"That is what I'm doing at the moment," Xander growled and stopped as his Tricorder beeped at him. "Aha, got you."

"How's that going to help, Xan?" Buffy asked curiously.

"'Lurconis dwells beneath, filth to filth'," he quoted. "That probably means the sewers somewhere in Sunnydale. Now the vamps who stole the babies had to have been down there already, and they left a residual trace on sheets of the cribs…specifically a mould and asbestos…there's only one place that still has asbestos in its construction…the section of the sewers built in the sixties."

Snyder stared at the others then at Xander. "Wow, you're smart." Xander just gave a wry look in reply to that.

"The sewers?" Joyce said, still sad and went to Giles for a comforting hug.

"Uh, good. You go do that thing with the demon, and I'll stay here in case the babies, you know, uh... find their way back." Snyder grinned nervously.

"The babies must be so scared." Joyce broke the hug and looked down.

"You filthy little ponce." Giles stalked up to Snyder, clearly challenging him. "Are you afraid of a little demon?"

"If you want to splash around in the poo," Snyder shoved the Watcher. "You're the filthy one!"

"We don't have time for this shit." Xander said from across the room as he unplugged the surveillance camera. He hurried back over to Snyder. "Have a nice nap, Principal."

"But it's not…bbbeed taiiime…" Snyder collapsed to the floor, the victim of a neck pinch.

"Oooh, that is so cool, can you show me how to that?" Giles grinned.

"Maybe later," Xander temporized and waved Buffy over. "You and Joyce stay out of trouble."

"I _so_ don't want to leave them alone, Xander," the Slayer shook her head.

"We can't afford to babysit them," he retorted sarcastically and began to key in a Site-to-Site Transport into his Tricorder.

"But…"

Xander initiated transport and both he and Buffy vanished from the hospital in cascade of blue sparkles.

"Blast, I wanted to see the demon's butt kicked," Giles slapped his hand onto his leg in frustration.

"Well, we can keep ourselves busy in the meantime," Joyce smirked and threw her arms around his neck, and busied themselves with another snog session.

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Xander held out his Tricorder in one hand with his UMP out in another, and scanned the street they were running down, in the centre of town for the four small lifesigns that would indicate the presence of the babies, and the ritual feeding about to take place. Buffy had his Mek'leth's in hand and keeping pace.

"Got them, fifty meters, in the sewer junction ahead," Xander said, storing his Tricorder and pointed at the heavy steel manhole cover forty meters away.

"Got it," Buffy rushed ahead and easily ripped it off and dropped down, Xander waited two seconds and dropped down after her. He landed easily and brought the UMP up and immediately let off three muffled shots that dusted a red robed vampire bearing down on him. Buffy vivisected her vamp and it turned to dust. Xander let off another six shots into the hearts of two more red robed vamps and saw another two vampires leading away a mid-aged man; balding very neat blonde hair, wearing a suit and smirking as they vanished down a side tunnel, beating a hasty retreat.

Xander dismissed the idea of pursuit as the table with four missing babies on was the priority. They were quite surprisingly calm, not a single one of them screaming their little lungs out at being kidnapped…not that they knew that happened at all. He grabbed the table and wheeled it away from a circular pool near the larger tunnel he knew Lurconis itself to be in. He pushed it to a point where the babies would be behind them and protected.

There was a sudden deep rumbling and roar that rocked and echoed in the sewers. Xander pulled out a Phaser and handed it Buffy, and pushed his UMP back under his coat, and brought the T3 Phaser Rifle to bear, setting it to Level 16 beam mode.

"Xander, is that…?" Buffy asked as another roar shook the tunnel.

"Lurconis, yeah. Make sure your aim is spot on, we don't want to leave a rather big crater in the street when we're done."

"Gotcha," she said, raising the Phaser to point down the tunnel.

Lurconis itself suddenly slithered powerfully into the junction, it was a huge snake demon that reminded Xander somewhat of the Worms from the Dune series, though obviously much smaller, with rows or serrated teeth circling its mouth, that could close much like a beak. Xander waited just a split second until most of the demon's girth was visible and barked, "FIRE!"

Two beams of nadion energy at levels powerful enough to vaporize weak targets and blow up stronger and larger targets with a single shot slammed into the demon, the orange energy washed for a moment over the demon, and it roared in pain. Xander fired again and raised his forearm, activating something new he had equipped.

Lurconis suddenly blew apart in a mass of gore that streaked in every direction. The gore heading in Xander, Buffy and the babies' direction was deflected by a large energy shield that was emitted from his arm.

"Whew," Buffy breathed in relief at the sight of the shield. "I wasn't looking forward to cleaning that gunk out of my clothes."

Xander deactivated the shield and grinned at Buffy. "Neither was I, to tell you the truth." He slung his phaser rifle back into his trenchcoat and picked a baby up in either arm. Buffy mirrored him and after remotely connecting with his Tricorder, they vanished from the sewer in another cascade of sparkles.

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**DWX Shipyard Facility, Namibia**.

Xander stood on the edge of their little valley, looking down at the completed buildings with the high tech 24th C architecture, the largest of which was the two hundred and fifty meter long by fifty meters. A building within which the _Defiant _class ship itself would be built. All of the facilities were finally completed, and all that remained was for him to give the word to the Holographic Engineers – now totalling almost two hundred in number – to begin construction.

"Hey, X," said Faith with a big grin on her face, as she hiked up the side of the valley. "This place is wicked smart. Thanks for bringing me."

"You're welcome," he nodded, idly scratching his chin.

"Ya know that Torres chick, she said she would show me some Klingon moves later today," Faith grinned infectiously.

"Well, with your strength, you should be able to pull them off easily," Xander said musingly.

"What's up with you, X-man? You look like you're on another planet."

"Hmmm?" Xander asked distractedly and shook himself. "Oh, sorry. Just thinking about the fact that Sunnydale's Mayor seems to be not of the good."

"Since when is any politician good?" scoffed Faith. "Bunch of middle age men playing power games with people's lives."

"Good point," admitted Xander with a snort. "Only this one was present at the feeding of Lurconis. He might have been a prisoner of the Gorches but I doubt it. He was too calm about everything and was willingly there. Either way, we have to investigate."

"Tell me when and where, and I'll slay his ass."

"Thanks for the offer, Faith, I'll let ya know," Xander chuckled. "So what do you say we build ourselves a starship?"

"Lead the way, X. Lead the way."

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_A/N: There is the final universe for ya folks. The Ryanverse. Credit to the master Tom Clancy, of course. This chap took a while cos I wasn't sure what to do with 'Beauty and Beasts' and 'Homecoming' Episodes. My changes make those episode's plot points moot so I skipped them. Though as you can see the Mayor hired the Gorches to fill the void left by Trick. The Defiant is getting built! Yay! Finally! You'll get way more Faith,Dawn,Xan action next chapter. _


	14. Chapter 14 The Future is Nigh

**Chapter 14 – The Future is Nigh**

**Oak Cemetery, Sunnydale**

Buffy and Faith both rolled onto their backs, side by side, each had a vampire on top of them. Buffy backhand punched her attacker while Faith struggled to get control over hers. Buffy's vampire tried to punch her, but she redirected his arm to hit the ground next to

her.

Giles watched calmly while sitting behind them on a nearby bench. Xander stood nearby in full hunting gear, a displeased expression on his face. Oh, he agreed in theory with this 'review' Giles had suggested. To gauge the two Slayers progress, but it just rubbed him the wrong way to just stand there and not get rid of the two vampires quickly and efficiently.

"_They are getting spoiled by the technology we have access to in dealing with the supernatural, there may come a time when that technology cannot avail us, and we may have to fall back onto old methods. If those skills are rusty…then we are in trouble_." He had calmly explained.

Buffy was still on her back while her assailant was now standing over her, throwing punches down at her. Faith log rolled away from them, taking her attacker with her. Giles took off his glasses nonchalantly and began to clean them; causing Xander to give him a dirty look at how clinical he was being about this.

Faith managed to roll on top of her vampire. She yanked him by the lapels of his jacket to a standing position, spun half-way around and threw him into a log roll over a stone bench. He hit the ground and kept on rolling.

Buffy is up now, and ducked a half-spinning jumping hook kick from her vampire, and then sidestepped to avoid a punch. Faith jumped up onto the bench and then back down to the ground. Her attacker aimed a punch at her face, but changed his manoeuvre and decided to snap kick her in the gut instead.

Thinking quickly, Faith grabbed his foot and threw it over his head, forcing him to flip over in a back layout. He landed hard on his stomach. Buffy threw a punch at her assailant's face, but he ducked it. She tried for another one, but he blocked it. She then aimed for

his stomach with another punch, but was blocked yet again. The vampire tried to punch her, but she latched onto his arm and yanked him backwards, then forwards, and twisted his arm, sending him flipping onto his back.

Giles calmly took out a notepad and scribbled down something.

Faith by now had managed to get a firm grip on her attacker, and threw his head backward, sending him flying backwards onto a bench. His momentum carried him sliding over it. Faith jumped up onto the bench, and followed him over, ready to attack. Buffy sent her vampire spinning back to the ground with a two-kick combination of a roundhouse followed by a hook kick. She paused for a moment to let him get back up, and then roundhouse kicked him in the gut, followed immediately by a punch to his face as the momentum of her kick carried her around.

Giles picked up his cup of coffee and at that point Xander had had enough and gave the Watcher a solid thump to his back that sent the cup spilling and levelled his own pointed glare. _'It wasn't as if his two Slayers weren't in mortal combat right about now, and he's acting as if he's on a picnic!'_ thought Xander angrily.

Faith jumped down from the bench and kicked her vampire in the knee, breaking it with a wet _snap_ and sending the demon tumbling to the ground. Buffy roundhouse kicked hers again in the stomach. Faith punched her vampire in the stomach to further take the fight out of him and took aim with her stake. Buffy tripped hers so that he landed next to Faith's, and they ended up side by side on the ground. The Slayers both plunged their stakes into their respective demons simultaneously, causing them both to explode into ashes.

After the dust settled, they gave each other a high-five and headed over to Giles and Xander.

"Synchronized Slaying," boasted Buffy with a grin.

"New Olympic category?" smirked Faith.

"Whadaya think?"

"It certainly shows you have the capability to work as a unit," Giles said.

"It was sloppy."

Xander whirled in an instant and had his UMP aimed square between the eyes of the owner of the new voice. The middle aged woman in his sights gasped and flinched at the rather lethal piece of hardware suddenly pointed at her face. Xander's first impression was she wouldn't have been out of place in a boardroom of some major multinational company. Expensive beige suit top, with matching skirt, and dark blonde hair tied severely into a bun. Her face had lost its supremely confident and condescending expression, and was now nervously looking at Xander.

"Sneaking up on a vampire slaying is not a very smart thing, Ms whoever," Xander said neutrally. "Who are you?"

The woman shook herself and gaining some semblance of herself back, replied, "I'm Gwendolyn Post Mrs. I am Faith's new Watcher." Xander frowned at that having an internal debate, then lowered his weapon. Giles looked at the android pointedly, who shrugged and nodded.

"Very well, we'll discuss this further at the School."

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**Library, Sunnydale High**

Giles leaned against the stair railing, whilst having confirmed that Mrs Post had a current Watcher's Council ID in her possession, and explaining Xander as an independent Demon Hunter and friend of Buffy and Faith. Both Slayers were standing around a table with Xander.

"And just how many demons has Mr Harris accounted for?" Post asked with that distinct posh British accent, adding in her sarcastic scepticism.

"Lady," Xander snorted, "I've got more vampire notches on my gun than most Council managed Slayers have gotten with pointy wooden sticks in their very short lifetimes. At last count…ninety three."

"Xander has rather…advanced technical skills as a munitionist, Mrs Post, and is a crack shot. He can send a three round grouping of wooden slugs from his UMP directly into the heart of a vampire." Giles confirmed. Post looked suitably amazed.

"Fine, now that we've established the Xan-man's skills and his right to be here," Faith said impatiently to Mrs Post. "I'm telling you straight, I don't need a new Watcher. No offence, lady. I just have this problem with authority figures. They end up kind of dead."

_Ouch,_ thought Xander. _She really didn't want a repeat of what happened to Professor Dormer. I have to nip this in the bud quickly_.

"Duly noted," Post walked past the table, "and fortunately, it's not up to you." She paused at the railing of the upper level, looking at the few stacks that there were in the study area of the library. "Mr Giles, where do you keep the rest of your books?"

"I – I'm sorry," Giles slipped on his glasses. "The rest?"

"Yes, the actual library."

"It's up the stairs and through the French doors," Xander gestured. _C'mon, spill so I can get this over with, _he groused internally.

"I can assure you, Mrs Post; this is the finest occult reference library…" Giles was interrupted rather rudely by Post at this point.

"…this side of the Atlantic, I'm sure. Do you have Hume's Paranormal Encyclopaedia?"

Giles looked away at this, whilst Xander scowled. The library whilst having an advanced collection of occult reference material was by no means complete or extensive. Giles waged a near constant battle to obtain copies of the books from their sources around the world, the problem being that the school library of a town very few people had heard of didn't rate much clout in getting access or priority delivery. It had gotten a lot better with DWX funding greasing the palms but it was still a problem.

"The Labyrinth Maps of Malta?" Post challenged again. Xander had resist snapping at Post at this point…_Oh yeah, Buffy will surely need to know how to get around a maze of magical traps set underground on a puny island in the Mediterranean_, he thought sarcastically. Post was practically dressing Giles down as an ineffective Watcher in front of his Slayer. Why?

From Buffy's hopeful look at Giles, Xander thought that it may be working.

"It's on order," Giles was restraining clearly himself; the skin around his eyes had tightened. That was like major emo for the Brit.

"Well, I suppose you have Sir Robert Kane's Twilight Compendium?"

"I do," Giles pulled the book in question out and showed it to her, but Post was clearly unimpressed.

"Of course you do," she began to pace past him, a serious expression on her face. "I have been sent by the council for a very important reason. Faith needs a Watcher. I am to act in that capacity and report back."

_Oh boy_, Xander did **so** not want a battle with the Council. He knew who would win if it came down to blows between DWX and them. But it would be a loss for the good guys all around.

"Excuse me, Mary Poppins, but you don't seem to be listening…" Faith leaned forward in her chair, giving an aggravated look to Mrs Post.

"Faith," Giles interrupted hurriedly, thankfully seeing the huge oncoming train wreck and side stepping it, "if the Council feels that you need closer observation, then…we will all, of course, cooperate."

Faith leaned back when Xander subtly shook his head at her and scratched a nonexistent itch on his right leg. Faith's eyes widened then her expression became blank, nonchalantly surveying Mrs Post, ready to jump to action in an instant and Xander felt a momentary glow of satisfaction that she had taken to her lesson in nonverbal cues in combat so well.

"The Council also wishes me to report on the _entire_ situation here, including you," Post gave a pointed glance to Giles who looked entirely nonplussed. "The fact is…there is talk in the Council that you have become a bit too…American."

"Me?" Giles was taken aback, putting a hand against his chest.

"Him?" Buffy was surprised.

"A demon named Lagos is coming here to the hellmouth," Post abruptly got down to business, catching nearly everyone by surprise. _Finally_, thought Xander. "Mr Giles an illustration of Lagos, if you please." Her tone was distinctly condescending.

"Oh, uh…" Giles turned to his books on the table, flustered and picking among them, "yes, uh…" He sat at the table and began to page through one of the books.

"Perhaps later," Mrs Post said wryly. This was finally enough to break through Giles' legendary restraint and he began to visibly seethe. _Damn, talk about being a bitch; she could give Cordelia some pointers in emasculation_. But Xander still stopped short of doing anything. "Lagos seeks the Glove of Myhnegon. No record of this glove's full power exists, but we do know it is highly dangerous and must not fall into the hands of a demon. Lagos must be stopped."

Giles folded his hands over his books, and looked at her seriously. "What do you propose?"

"Well, if it's not too radical a suggestion, I thought we might kill him." Post said dryly. Giles turned away from her and began cleaning his glasses. _Red Alert, Ripper emergence imminent_, Xander grinned inwardly. "I suggest two Slayers at full strength for a coordinated hunt." And there it was, the Council attitude of how to treat the Slayer, a disposable tool, never mind that she's a teenage girl. "We believe the Glove is buried in a tomb somewhere, so Lagos will be headed for the cemetery."

"There is more than one in Sunnydale," Giles explained flatly, as Xander began to casually amble closer to Post, looking bored.

"I see, how many?"

"Twelve, within the city limits."

Mrs Post sighed in frustration. "Well, we'll just have to take them one at a time." Giles put his glasses back on and began looking through his books. "Anything in your books that would pinpoint the exact location of the tomb will be useful, but then, we cannot ask for miracles."

"Yes we can," Xander spoke up suddenly, from his position next to Mrs Post, and with little fanfare, neck pinched her into unconsciousness, and she slumped to the floor like a puppet whose strings had been cut.

"What in blazes are you doing?!" cried Giles, standing abruptly. "When she wakes up…"

"Relax, G-Man," Xander grabbed Post under her arms and put her into a more comfortable position. Not that she deserved it. "I was waiting for her to reveal all her information before acting. You see…she's not a Watcher any longer."

"What do you mean? Oh, the Watcher database…" Giles said in realization.

"Yes, I have an automated hack in their system which downloads any new data they have, and then onto a secure DWX server. But this is old data; Gwendolyn Post hasn't been a Watcher for two years. She was kicked out for misuses of dark power."

"There should've been a blasted memo! I would distinctly remember any Field Watcher getting tarred and feathered in such a manner," raged Giles. "Not to mention where did she get a current Watcher ID? They are magically created and cannot be forged."

"Perhaps when she knew she was about to get booted out, she made a few post dated ones while she still had access to those resources," Xander posited, channelling Data's adaptive logic programs that he had created for his Sherlock Holmes holonovels. "What should we do with her?"

"We're taking her straight to the Council," Giles said firmly. "She won't just rate a sacking for this. Impersonating a Watcher with the intent of subverting a Slayer for her own ends. Not to mention she was obviously after this Glove of Myhnegon, and was hoping to use us to get it for her, and kill Lagos in the process. This will end with her doing rather restricted, unpleasant community service and a lengthy time in a Council sponsored Asylum."

"Uh, do we even want to know?" Buffy asked uncertainly.

"No, you do not," Giles said darkly and with finality.

"So this chick is off the reservation," Faith sighed in relief, "thank goodness. I was just starting to warm up to the X-man as my sort- of-Watcher."

Xander shuddered theatrically. "Please, Faith, not below the belt."

"I will get on the line with the Council, could you see to her delivery, Xander," Giles asked heading into his office.

"Yes, sir, US Marshall, at your service," Xander saluted mockingly, using the voice of Tommy Lee Jones. But grabbed Mrs Post anyway and slung her over his shoulder, vanishing in a sparkling blue cascade of energy soon afterward.

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With Mrs Post safely in Council custody, the search began for the tomb that contained the Glove sought after by Lagos. It took a whole day of reference in the library, as Xander confirmed that he could not locate anything in his Occult database…meaning it was probably located in the books he had not yet scanned, which was an ongoing process, as they had to be careful that another Moloch incident did not occur. (Xander really didn't want a demon bound transcendentally within a book to pop into his memory circuits or even worse in the DWX computer core)

Finally, Giles stumbled upon the relevant book. "The probable location of the Glove is in the Von Hauptman family crypt."

"Oh yeah, that's the large one in Restfield Cemetery," Xander said with an air of realization. "I'll inform Buffy and Faith…" He reached towards the combadge under his trenchcoat.

"It's a probable location Xander, not confirmed, I could be wrong, let them continue with their sweep," advised Giles.

"Fine," Xander sighed, "I'll grab Dawn and we can check it out, she's been fretting about seeing some action lately."

"Be careful," Giles picked up another book as Xander headed out the library.

888888888888888888888888888

**Restfield Cemetery**

Xander and Dawn in their midnight black hunting outfits, advanced through the cemetery's various gravestones, UMP and Phaser Rifle in ready to fire positions, as they advanced towards the crypt identified as contained the Glove. They both paused on either side of it and peered down into the entrance, that was half set in the earth, with stairs leading down. Dawn drew her Tricorder and after consulting it, gave the all clear sign. Xander led the way down, and found their path blocked by a heavy stone door that had to be rolled out of the way either by heavy machinery or in this case, by extreme android strength.

He slung his UMP away and standing to one side for maximum leverage, easily pushed the crypt open. They advanced into the darkness, Dawn stealing a kiss as she passed him cheekily; he smacked her lightly on her shapely derriere before she could get out of range in retaliation.

The dark interior was easily visible to both and five stone coffins stood out of the marble floor.

"Okay, which one?" Xander whispered.

"If this thing is here its not radiating q-flux, at least nothing I can detect over the ambient energy of the hellmouth."

"Try scanning for metals."

Dawn nodded and her eyebrows arched in surprise. "Got it, a few kilograms of tempered steel in the fourth coffin, how did you know?'

"Just a feeling, most of these things were made in ancient times, meaning swords, armour, hence, iron, steel and so on," he shrugged and swiftly lifted off the heavy stone lid to reveal the remains of Ludwig von Hauptman, the head of the family. On his right hand was a rather sinister looking glove, made of leather, chain mail and plate mail. Small spikes ran along the plates that covered the back of the hand and the forearm. Ringed round the opening were ten hinged claws that looked something like crab legs, but made of steel and very sharp.

"Glove of Myhnegon, that's got to be it," Xander nodded.

"That's one ugly fashion accessory." Dawn grimaced in distaste.

He carefully ripped a trouser leg off Von Hauptman's remains, using it to prevent contact between him and Glove as he pried it away from the skeletal hand. Not touching any occult artefact as unknown as this one was one of the first rules of handling a Watcher learned…the same applied to exo-archaeology, you never knew what traps might be waiting to zap you.

When he had it covered properly he handed it over to Dawn, after which he resealed the coffin and crypt behind them. They were both about to leave when the com activated.

'_Faith to X…wheeze…Xander, I've found…Lagos…Shady Hill…'_

She sounded completely winded and her words were underscored with pain.

"On my way," he slapped his combadge and gave a meaningful glance to Dawn.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get this safely to the library, you go rescue the dark damsel in distress," Dawn nodded.

"Thanks, and you're _my_ damsel by the way," he grinned, while tapping on his tricorder and triggering the site-to-site transport.

The world faded around him in a wash of blue, and when everything returned to normal, he was standing next to a recumbent Faith looking rather worse for wear. Retreating from the scene was an ugly ass, rather large demon, that had armoured skin that he scanned would be too dense to penetrated by normal bullets, let alone wooden ones. His Phaser Rifle came up and a single lance of orange nadion energy slammed into what he assumed was Lagos hastily retreating back. There was a flash, and the big demon simply vaporized, leaving the grass under its feet scorched.

"That was rather painful," moaned Faith with a wince. "It was like hitting a tank, and getting hit by truck."

Xander hovered a Tricorder over her. "You've got some bruising in your throat, the back of your head and a slight concussion, your Healing will take care of it, but I'd rather you be under the Doc's supervision, nevertheless."

"I could do with a nap," Faith mumbled. Xander promptly slapped her on the cheek. "Hey!"

"You don't fall asleep with a concussion," he remonstrated, and quickly tapped on his Tricorder. Faith swore up a storm as she vanished with sparkles of blue twinkly lights.

It was at that moment that his cellphone rang, making him give a brief start of surprise before taking it out. "When it rains it pours."

8888888888888888888

**DC General Hospital, Washington DC**

Xander, Dawn and Doc Howser walked down one of the bustling corridors of one of the larger public medical facilities in the American capital. It was something of an obstacle course for the three of them, dodging patients ambling around with IV drips, nurses, doctors, family members visiting relatives and so on. All three kept a sharp lookout for their targets, who they finally found talking to each other just outside one of the Surgery Wards.

"Agents Mulder, Scully," Xander nodded at both in greeting, he noted that Scully was dressed in burgundy surgical scrubs, she seemingly had taken up her old profession again, if briefly, considering the patient she was working on.

"Good to see you," nodded Mulder, they shook hands and the FBI agent eyed Dawn.

"Oh, this is Ms D," Xander explained. Dawn had donned a holographic disguise that made her look about Agent Scully's age, with long black hair, dark eyes, an Asian face, it made Xander think of a tall Admiral Hoshi Sato. "After your description of your friend's condition, I realized that she is the best person to help."

"And just what is her qualification?" Agent Scully asked, eyeing Dawn – who just returned the stare with an arched eyebrow.

"I specialize in the type of technology that is infesting your friend's body," Dawn replied simply; she even completed her disguise by adding a Japanese lilt to her inflections and pronunciations.

"And just what is it?" Mulder frowned.

Dawn lowered her voice to a near whisper, "Nanotechnology, Agent Mulder, machines working at a nanoscopic level to effect change in cellular and atomic structures."

"That's amazing," Scully shook her head as if to clear it, "that we are already capable of it… but of course these…bastards," he tone was laced with venom that could eat through the concrete floor, 'would see and use it as a weapon. I mean it's the next big breakthrough in medical science, right up there with penicillin. Do you have any idea how many lives could be saved…"

"I know Agent Scully," Dawn raised her hand to stall the indignant FBI agent. "But this situation clearly demonstrates why the technology can't be released yet. The potential scale of harm it can do in the wrong hands is incomprehensible."

"What's his condition?" Dr H nodded in agreement but changed the subject since time was not on their side.

"He's stable, but it's not good, Doctor. He's got extreme vascular trauma and distension. His... his blood has become a weapon against his body."

"What treatments are you attempting?"

"The best that we can do is keep lasering his arteries open. But it's only going to be a matter of time before we lose. I mean, it's-it's building walls in his vessels faster than we can tear them down, and... and we just don't have the technology to combat it."

"Which is where I come in," Dawn said astutely. "This is a mechanical technology, and as such, one must think more like an engineer than a doctor in combating it."

"What do you suggest?"

"There are two approaches, depending on my own analysis of the nanites and their resistance to damage," Dawn explained. "We'd need to expose him to a form of radiation therapy or inject him with nanites manufactured by my own organization which will go on a seek and destroy mission inside his body…think of it as a physical anti-virus program."

"That's…that's…both will likely end up killing him," Scully stuttered out. "The strain on his body of that kind of battle…not to mention the effect of the type of radiation that will be required on his organic cells…"

"The damage can be mitigated, but in the end he will still be alive, which is not going to be for much longer," Xander explained grimly.

"I also found something else," Mulder took out a folder, Xander noted the name on it printed in large bold letters 'Senator Matheson'. "I found this with Skinner's morning mail. He was doing a security check on a Senate bill for violation of trade laws involving sensitive technology."

"Yeah, but this is just a routine procedure, Mulder. The FBI does dozens of these a year." Scully pointed out.

"No. This bill was going to vote in the Senate. All it was waiting on was Skinner's review and an analysis by Dr. Kenneth Orgel."

"You're saying that Dr. Orgel infected Skinner with _nanites_ of all things, just to cover up his analysis?"

"No. Orgel didn't infect anybody. Orgel came to the FBI to tell Skinner what he knew-- that there was a gross violation of export laws involving new technology."

"Nanites," Scully said flatly. The ringing of a mobile phone interrupted the conversation and almost everyone began to reflexively check their pockets, only to find that their phones weren't ringing. A nurse emerged from the surgery ward with a vibrating, ringing phone in question a few moments later and handed it Mulder.

"You want to get this? It was in his pants pocket." The young nurse explained before promptly heading back into the theatre where Xander could briefly see the rather startling sight of Assistant Director Walter Skinner – Mulder and Scully's former direct supervisor and their somewhat distant friend. He was a tall man, with almost completely bald head and broad shoulders. He would've looked formidable if he hadn't been laid flat on his back; his pale skin a virtual map of the veins in his body, due to miscolored blood of the nanites infecting his body.

Mulder put the phone to his ear, and Xander easily listened to the voice on the other end.

"Might…as well…give up." The voice was dull…stilted…electronic.

"Who is it?" Scully frowned.

"It's a computer synth voice."

"You…can't…stop it."

"Somebody must know that he's here." Mulder deduced. Xander engaged his internal sensors and began a signal trace immediately.

"Walter Skinner…your time…"

"The caller is on this floor," Xander pretended to look at his Tricorder. He and Mulder shared a look and both burst into action, sprinting down the corridor, away from the surgery ward. They were barely down the corridor when Xander spotted the origin of the signal, as if they needed any more confirmation, the very roughly bearded individual with the rather advanced looking Palm Pilot in his hands would've been a dead give away. The culprit was also dressed in worn, thick clothing and had a cap low over his face, that obscured his eyes.

The culprit also spotted them coming and began running, immediately vanishing into an emergency stairwell that he had kept himself close to. Xander and Mulder burst into the stairwell barely five seconds behind and charged downstairs, jumping multiple steps at a time.

They heard the emergency door on the next floor slam open. Mulder drew his weapon and they both carefully emerged onto what was the parking deck of DC General.

Mulder spotted the bearded man as he sprinted away down the lane of parked cars.

"Federal agent! Stop right there!"

The culprit just dodged suddenly to the side to use a car as a shield and vanished from view. Xander could still track the guy's lifesign as he kept advancing and used the cars as cover…he was quite good, but it didn't matter. Xander just walked perpendicularly to the next line of cars and reached into his pocket for his Tricorder. He didn't really need it to do this, but since he was with Mulder and in a secured parking lot. It limited his actions

The bearded man's car screamed out of its parking spot and directly towards Xander. His tricorder sent a wide invisible laser beam that, with the aid of a bit of technomagic, suddenly caused the car to lose all electrical power – the engine stopped as there was no spark to cause combustion in the fuel – but the car still had its momentum.

The bearded man, clearly desperate now, swerved the car in an attempt to hit Xander.

He clearly hadn't counted on Xander running full on towards him, jumping onto his bonnet, denting it severely, grabbing a firm hand hold on the edge of the bonnet where it met the windscreen. The bearded man swerved the car left, and crashed it into a Ford.

Luckily, the crash happened at less than forty five kilometres an hour, and Xander easily kept his grip, despite the sudden deceleration. Mr Bearded man had not had his seatbelt on, and had bumped his head rather badly on the steering wheel. The guy was recovering though and Xander didn't want to give him a chance to gather his wits.

Xander vaulted off the bonnet to the driver side door and almost ripped the door off, but stopped himself. He grabbed a fistful of the bearded man's jacket and slammed him back into his seat, and applied a neck pinch quickly, as an impressed looking Mulder was running over with his pistol up and ready.

"You can relax, Mulder, he's unconscious."

"You sure?"

Xander promptly gave an open handed slap to the culprit that failed to rouse the guy.

"Ah." Mulder nodded and holstered his weapon as Xander began to search the bearded man's pockets. The first thing found was a wallet which he gave over to Mulder, who opened it… "Paul Adams…Washington address…" The FBI Agent frowned and pulled out the ID card and felt it carefully. "Fake. Well made, but still fake." Xander next carefully handed over a Glock pistol. "Serial numbers filed off, and since our perp is wearing gloves will make any fingerprints on it useless."

Xander then found the Palm Pilot and began to examine it, flipping it open, and switching it on, he noticed the touchscreen was defaulted on a number of programs. "Rather nice piece of tech, that."

"Indeed it is, they're barely on the market yet." Xander trailed off as he tapped into the device with his internal scanners and channelling some technomagic, began to probe its' secrets, easily breaking the laughingly simple encryption. "Well, I've just found the key to saving AD Skinner."

"What? How will a palm pilot do that?" Mulder was confused.

"The nanites inside Skinner aren't mindless machines, they have to be programmed, Agent Mulder. And like any computer can be controlled via modem or wireless RF," Xander held up the device to the Agent. On the screen was a program labelled 'Skinner' and a cone like graphic that was half filled, and various other buttons and functions. Xander pulled it back and tapped on the cone and dragged his finger so that the cone graph was completely empty. He tapped a few other commands and flipped the Palm Pilot closed and pocketed it.

"I'll hold onto it for now. I've already sent the signal for the nanites to stop what they're doing…combined with the treatment Ms D can give, AD Skinner should recover fully."

"Let's see who our guy is," Mulder suggested next.

Xander nodded and pulled off the cap, and immediately the long brown hair shifted, clearly showing that it was a wig. He pulled it off revealing short dark blonde hair. The beard appeared to be the real thing though. Xander threw the wig away and gazed at the youngish face. The man seemed to be in the same age range as Mulder.

The FBI Agent bent over and squinted at bearded man, putting a hand to cover the beard, and opening an eye. Mulder gasped in apparent recognition and Xander saw pure hatred entering the man's eyes, with his hands compressed into fists.

"Krycek!" Mulder hissed.

"Who?" Xander frowned. Mulder hands seemed to be gravitating to his weapon, but the FBI Agent took a deep breath and shook his head.

"I'll explain later, we need to get this rat out of sight, he's a high profile and dangerous MIB. Security will be here soon."

Xander nodded in understanding, pulled Krycek out of the car and slung him over his shoulder easily. They headed off with the MIB and back into the stairwell, where Xander used his Tricorder to freeze the feed from the security camera before it could come back around to sweep the stairwell landing. He dumped Krycek directly in the corner of the landing, letting his body lean against the wall.

"Okay, why are you itching to drill a bullet into this guy?" Xander asked promptly.

"He killed my father, that's why," spat Mulder, glaring at the insensate Krycek. "He also was responsible for killing Scully's sister, and abducting Scully so they could perform medical experiments on her. And that's only the tip of the iceberg; he's capable of stooping to any level and is only loyal to himself at the end of the day."

Xander noticed the false left arm of Krycek next and pointed it out. "What's with the arm?"

"I'm not sure of the exact details but he lost the arm in Russia, sometime after he and I escaped from a gulag – where they conducting experiments with the Colonist viral essence, by infecting the prisoners."

"You were infected as well?" Xander asked with a sudden weariness, scanning Mulder again, just to be sure…no infection.

"Yeah, but the essence left me soon afterward, it didn't gestate or control me."

"So why would 'Ratboy' here then infect Skinner with nanites? What's the purpose?"

"If the nanites are controlled as you say," Mulder mused. "Then Krycek was probably going to blackmail Skinner into cooperating with him. The AD still oversees the X-Files."

"That makes sense," Xander nodded. "I also noticed another Nanite control program on the Palm Pilot, it was called 'Orgel'."

"He must have Doctor Orgel, the one who had worked on the technology stashed somewhere, and infected him as well," Mulder scowled at Krycek.

"Krycek can't be working on his own, the Syndicate must be behind this in some fashion, which makes AD Skinner in for some difficult times ahead." Xander sighed sadly.

"What do you mean?"

"If we thwart their control over Skinner what's to stop them from simply killing him, or simply infecting him with nanites again."

"You mean you're not going to 'cure' him anymore?!"

"No, no, Agent Mulder, I wasn't suggesting letting Krycek have his way, but merely creating the appearance of it. We will cure AD Skinner, but I will modify this Palm Pilot to make it give false return signals of the nanites – so it will convince Krycek that the nanites are still there."

"You're effectively turning Skinner into a double-agent."

"Exactly, that way, assuming he agrees, which I have no doubt he will…self-preservation from the Syndicate and all that…he can control the information he gives to Krycek and work to your benefit."

"And what of Krycek and Orgel?" hissed Mulder suddenly.

"Well, Agent Mulder, you must ask yourself what is more important to you, personal revenge, or the life of your friend? And as for Orgel…we have no idea where he is."

Mulder sighed and looked troubled for a few moments before nodding. Xander pulled out the Palm Pilot and interfaced his Tricorder with it. Loading a program that would accomplish what they needed, and promptly stuffed the Palmtop back into Krycek's jacket. It was another few minutes work to restore Krycek to his previous condition, including a quick trip to the car by Mulder to garner the wig, where he had to flash his FBI ID to get access, as the building security had arrived on the scene.

88888

Krycek would wake up a few hours later totally startled at his change of location, but as he found all his possessions with him, his plan to get SR819 withdrawn was still seemingly on track. The Palmtop reported Skinner's nanites were still building up and slowly killing him…he was concerned though about the fact that Mulder and that other guy had seemingly captured him…but yet here he was in the stairwell of the hospital, free.

It would be childplay to find out what happened though, since Mulder would undoubtedly tell Skinner, and then blackmailing it out of the AD. _Oh well, still have a pesky scientist to get rid of and a Senator to warn off._

888888

**Sunnydale High School**

The school bell rang throughout the corridors and students came pouring out in a virtual stream to escape the various classes for their next bouts of academic torture. Buffy, Xander and Willow threaded their way through the throng and stopped at their various lockers in one of the main hallways.

"And then he just bailed. He didn't say anything. He just took off. It was so weird." Buffy explained. She had apparently had a run in with Angel whilst doing some last minute Christmas shopping in the evening.

"He's hardly touched base at DWX at all lately," Xander said. "He'll come to occasionally have his various swords and assorted pointy instruments repaired and sharpened. He also dropped off a few mystical artefacts he pulled from his undead kills. But other than that…"

"Do you think something's wrong? Maybe you should tell Giles," Willow suggested.

All of them opened their lockers to get their various books they needed for next few classes.

"No. I don't wanna bug Giles. He's still kinda twitchy when it comes to the subject of Angel." Buffy winced.

"I agree," nodded Xander meaningfully. "The G-man's pulse goes through the roof whenever Angel visits, or even when I discuss how to coordinate patrols with Angel."

With all their books and stuff gathered they zipped their bags and started down the hall.

"Maybe Angel just has the holiday blues. Everybody gets 'em. Especially when they're alone."

"It's just so frustrating. Just when I think I've put it behind me, moving on with Scott, and then boom, there Angel is. I just want a nice, quiet Christmas vacation." Buffy shook her head in visible frustration with herself.

"So, you guys doing anything special?" Xander enquired next, trying to steer the subject more to the impending Christmas.

"Tree. Nog. Roast. Just me, Mom and Dawn and hopefully an excess of gifts. What are you doing for Christmas?"

"Being Jewish. Remember, people? Not everybody worships Santa." Willow chuckled at them both.

"I just meant for vacation."

"Mm. Oz and I are just going to contentedly snuggle it away in the," she lowered her voice, "holodeck. We're going to give the Risa program a try."

"Me, Faith, T'Jen and Gibson, being the rather emancipated individuals we are," Xander grinned. "Are going to take the _Alpha Flyer_ out for a spin around Sol. Then off to Africa it is."

They entered the student lounge and immediately grabbed one of the couches for themselves. Buffy hefted her duffel and began placing cans of food in the annual Holiday Food Drive collection box that was always in the lounge during the holiday season. Xander gazed sadly at it, wishing he could just give in to his heart and just dump the plans for a Protein Re-sequencer on the Internet. In the Trek Universe it had taken less than a generation to wipe out hunger on Earth. First Contact with the Vulcans, combined with the devastation of WW3, had forced humanity to come together in the face of the great big Galaxy out there.

But as usual his head forced the logic of the situation; that it would cause more harm than good at the moment. Eliminating hunger using a technological substitute for agriculture… Xander couldn't even begin to anticipate the unintended consequences for all those employed in the food industry, agricultural sectors and the politics that went with it. Sure, there were still farms on Earth in the 24th Century, for those who preferred food by 'nature's hand', rather than Replicators, but they were not as numerous as they were in the 20th …farms were often passed down in families, like Captain Picard's vineyard.

"What about Cordelia?" Xander looked over to the still reigning Queen C. She was unusually alone and none of the Cordettes were in court. Cordy herself, well, she looked very…fidgety and distracted, not to mention casting nervous glances occasionally between her romance novel and the three Scoobies.

"She said she was going to Aspen with her folks, skiing," Buffy shrugged.

"Her lack of Cordettes is surprising," Willow noted. "Though her recent string of bad luck with guys is even worse…"

"If she would try to date someone other than a hormonal jock, then she'd fare better…T'Jen says she's really applying herself in our mini-Starfleet Academy. And when you learn stuff like that…well, John the Jock seems rather small fry in comparison."

888888888888888

**Interplanetary Space, Sol System**

The phase cloaked _Alpha Flyer_ cruised on its course at a leisurely one quarter impulse. Its mission was a simple flyby of each planet in the system, a Christmas gift to Gibson and Faith – it would be their first time in space. Both were understandably overwhelmed by the views of, first Earth, then Mercury, Venus, and finally Mars, which the _Flyer _was currently in orbit over.

To T'Jen, sitting at the _Flyer_'s science station, it was of course, not a holiday at all, but a chance to engage in high resolution short range scans of the terrestrial planets. Of course, Sol had been completely charted by United Earth in the Trek Universe, but this wasn't that Universe. As a result, she was compiling a survey for comparison of the two Sols.

Xander was content to pilot the Flyer and give a guided tour to the two 'Earthlubbers'. He put the Flyer into a low orbit, and rotated its axis to give a proper view of something every tourist to Mars either saw or tried to climb in the Trek Universe.

"That's Olympus Mons," he said, pointing. "It's the highest mountain in Sol. Twenty six kilometres high; it's actually a dormant shield volcano. For comparison; it's three times the height of Mount Everest."

"That's one wicked high mountain," Faith shook her head in amazement.

"That's not the only amazing feature Mars has," Xander continued, and again manoeuvred the Flyer into a new orbit. "See that…"

"It's a canyon," Gibson squinted, and then blinked shaking its head. "It's gigantic! Is that Valles Marineris?"

"Yeah," nodded Xander mildly. "A length of four thousand kilometres and with a depth of up to seven at some points, it's equivalent to the length of Europe and extends across one-fifth the circumference of Mars."

"If I could interrupt your tour, Xander, I believe we have a situation," T'Jen suddenly announced. Her holographic console was flashing and beeping at her. Xander focused on his own sensors.

"What is it?" Faith asked.

"I'm detecting a single cloaked Antarctic Class mothership, it's moving past Mars on a general trajectory for Earth," T'Jen reported.

"Are those pear-heads springing more troops on the ground?"

"No, I'm not scanning the presence of the virus on board – this is most likely a Reticulan crewed ship then."

"Good guys?"

"Well, it's safe to say they're not coming to Earth for tea and cookies with the Skrit Na," Xander reasoned.

"If you get us closer I can perhaps read their surface thoughts, I can find out their intentions?" Gibson offered.

"And they won't know you're doing it, G?" Faith enquired pointedly.

"No, as long as I only do it for brief moments at a time."

"What do you think, T'Jen?" Xander asked thoughtfully.

"It is well within Gibson's capabilities, he is still a relative novitiate but his skill is great."

"We'll do it, then, do you need a visual idea of where they are?"

"Not really, but it will help narrow my focus," Gibson explained.

The _Flyer _broke orbit and Xander sped up to three quarter impulse, swiftly guiding them on an intercept vector to the Reticulan mothership. Ten million kilometers later, Xander matched velocities with the mothership, and came to a relative stop twenty five kilometers behind the cruising craft. He overlaid a holoscreen on the viewports and a computer enhanced image of the black hulled mothership with its eerie inner green lights appeared.

"Close enough?" Gibson shook his head. Xander pushed the _Flyer_ harder until only ten kilometers separated the two ships. "Now?" Gibson didn't answer, his eyes closed and brow pinched in concentration. The young boy was bracing himself against the back of the pilot seat.

Finally, he opened his eyes. "We have to get back to Earth."

"Why?"

"Because they're here to eradicate the Syndicate."

888888888888888

When the _Alpha Flyer_ was back at DWX…an honest to goodness miracle occurred.

During Xander, T'Jen, Faith and Gibson's absence an unexpected crises had been averted. Namely, Angel nearly killing himself by going to watch a sunrise. He had apparently been haunted by visions of all those he had killed. Buffy, Giles and Dawn pieced the puzzle together though. The visions were actually the First Evil. A personification of all the hate and negativity in the Universe – it wasn't a demon, it was something even the darkness feared. It was an agent of corruption, the yang to the ying.

It was also not something that could be fought conventionally, it was incorporeal, though thankfully Buffy and Dawn had slayed all of the Firsts' priests – known as Bringers, who were responsible for allowing the First to manifest its 'avatar'.

Buffy had rushed to find the suicidal Angel before he could see his last sunrise. She had attempted to pin a combadge on him and transport him to safety in doors, but he would have none of it. He crushed it in his hand before Dawn could activate it.

"Angel, you just have to trust me. That thing that was haunting you..."

"It wasn't haunting me. It was showing me." Angel interrupted her.

"Showing you?" Buffy frowned in confusion.

"What I am."

"Were," she retorted insistently.

"And ever shall be."

"You don't know that. Some great evil just shows up and spins truth within lies, and you let it manipulate you like a puppet?!"

"I can't do it again, Buffy. I can't become a killer," Angel retorted harshly.

"Then fight it. We didn't bring you back just to watch you off yourself!"

"It's too hard." He shook his head determinedly.

"Angel, please, you have to get inside. I don't have another combadge," she pleaded desperately.

"It told me to kill you. You were in the dream. You know. It told me to lose my soul in you and become a monster again."

"I know what it told you." Buffy had been sharing Angel's dreams, through the Slayer's prophecy ability. "What does it matter?"

"Because I wanted to! Because I want you so badly! I want to take comfort in you, and I know it'll cost me my soul, and a part of me doesn't care."

Angel began to visibly cry. Buffy was at a loss for words.

"Look, I'm weak. I've never been anything else. It's not the demon in me that needs killing, Buffy. It's the man."

"You're weak. Everybody is. Everybody fails. This evil needs you, it wants you to do this, it wants you to stop protecting people, to stop all the good you've been doing lately," Buffy said grimly. "But that means that you can hurt it…by staying alive…by keeping up the fight."

Angel looked at her, but the expression on his face clearly showed he doesn't want to believe her.

Buffy continued in a near pleadingly voice, "Angel, you have the power to do real good, to make amends. But if you die now, then all that you ever were was a monster." The sky began to lighten. "Angel, please, the sun is coming up!"

"Just go." He folded his arms and turned away.

"I won't!"

"What, do you think this is simple? You think there's an easy answer? You can never understand what I've done! Now go!"

"You are not staying here." Buffy closed the distance and grabbed his arm. "I won't let you!"

"I said LEAVE!"

He jerked his arm free of her grasp. In anger and desperation Buffy punched him. He reacted by shoving her away from him roughly, she fell face forward, hard to the ground.

"Oh, my God..." Angel whispered to himself, aghast at what he had done.

He walked to her and crouched over her, grabbing her by the shoulders and turned her around to face him.

"No! No!" She clearly feared his intentions – that he was doing what the First wanted.

He grabbed her roughly by the arms and held her firmly.

"Am I a thing worth saving, huh?" He shook her. "Am I a righteous man? The world wants me gone!"

Buffy with tears in her eyes asked, "What about me? I still love you so much..."

She shoved him off of her and got up.

"And I hate it! I hate that it's so hard... and that you can hurt me so much." Her voice turned harsh despite her crying. "I know everything that you did, because you did it to me. Oh, God! I wish that I wished you dead. I don't. I can't."

Angel got up now, too. "Buffy, please. Just this once... let me be strong."

"Strong is fighting!" she retorted. "It's hard, and it's painful, and it's every day. It's what we have to do. And we can do it together."

Angel struggled with himself, knowing she was right.

"But if you're too much of a coward for that, then burn. If I can't convince you that you belong in this world, then I don't know what can. But do not expect me to watch. And don't expect me to mourn for you, because...

She stopped because it had inexplicably begun to snow. She and Angel both look up at it coming down, lightly at first and gradually heavier. The snowflakes swirling around them in the gentle morning breeze, and the ground around them starting to become white.

The sun was completely obscured.

Later in DWX, Xander had watched the local newsfeed…

"_And while most of Southern California is enjoying a balmy Christmas, an extreme cold front has sprung up out of nowhere around Sunnydale, where they are reporting heavy snowfall for the first time in, well, ever."_

"_Sunnydale residents shouldn't expect to see the sun at all today. That cold front isn't going anywhere. With temperatures in the high thirties, means you better bundle up if you're planning to go outside and enjoy the change in the weather."_

Xander pondered the fact someone was clearly looking out for Angel. The First had used every means available to con Angel into killing himself…and then out of nowhere, snow. If there was one thing that the event proved…it was that miracles, even on the hellmouth, can happen. He had never been particularly religious, but that didn't mean he didn't believe.

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**Potomac**** Train Yard, Arlington, Virginia**

It was an overcast day, with rain threatening to fall at any moment. The yard was near filled to capacity with train boxcars, from brand new ones in use, to rusting hulks still waiting to be cut down for scrap. The hard gravel lining the ground between the rails crunched beneath his feet as he came to a stop a few feet from the yellow police tape that secured the scene of horrific death that had occurred the previous night.

Beyond the tape, were police cars, fire trucks, ambulances; emergency personnel milled about doing their jobs – moving between a van, car and a large silver train car. Xander's eyes found an area off to one side where quite a few black body bags had been laid – all of which had dead occupants inside. One was open and being looked at by a local Medical Examiner – Xander focused his vision and could now see the body as if he was standing right beside it. A quick scan with his internal subspace sensors and he even had a cause of death.

Someone – most likely the Reticulans – had excited the very molecules of the victim's bodies to an extremely critical degree and in a short amount of time – essentially burning them alive, using their own bodies as the fuel source. It was an extremely nasty way to go.

He took his eyes off the gruesome sight and looked to one side, where an ambulance held the only survivor of the massacre. Xander walked along the police perimeter to get a better view, making sure to play the part of a casual bystander – even his clothes were more casual than those he usually wore with his Mr E persona. When he could see the open rear end of the ambulance and the survivor herself - where she was being attended to by paramedics – he linked himself to the DWX computer in Sunnydale, and began a facial recognition search.

A scan of the survivor gave him rather puzzling results…the woman looked in her late fifties, was somewhat skinny…she was a person you would expect to be the dotty old neighbor next door. Her scans told a different story…though he couldn't run a medical level scan, he could tell…she was not human. Her bio-electric potentials were totally wrong for that.

Another car joined the throng at that moment – a Ford that was typical of those the FBI liked to provide their agents.

'_That didn't take long_,' Xander thought.

Two men got out, one was AD Walter Skinner, the other was Mulder's usurper; Special Agent Jeffrey Spender. He was a skinny man, with stylishly cut curly brown hair and had the kind of face which projected constant boredom in its neutral expression – now however, the Agent was practically bouncing with agitation

"What happened here?" Spender's tone was just shy of demanding. The now, tall and strong form of AD Skinner raised a pointed eyebrow at the Agent…almost as if he was reminding the younger man who outranked who.

"No one knows yet," Skinner eventually replied, "a group of people were burned alive here. Another man's on life support. Only your mother survived."

_Aha_, thought Xander, as he refined the search and easily matched the survivor's identity. Cassandra Spender – Jeffery Spender's mother and according to the X-File, was presumed missing after being 'abducted'.

"Where is she?" Spender asked desperately.

Skinner only pointed to the ambulance that held Cassandra, and Spender was off like a rocket towards it.

"Mom?" he asked her as he sat next to her. The woman raised her head and her eyes shone, a loving expression broke upon her face. "Mom... It's me, Jeffrey. Mom, what happened to you? You've been gone so long I thought I'd never see you again."

"Oh... Don't cry, honey." Cassandra stroked her son's cheek. It was rather touching.

"Where have you been?" Spender asked wonderingly. Cassandra only sighed in response and a look of resignation, clearly she didn't want to answer. "What did they do to you?"

"I need to talk to someone," was Cassandra's only response, turning to look away.

"You can tell me," insisted Spender.

The mother shook her head. "I need to speak to Agent Mulder." This was the wrong thing to say. Spender grew furious, stood and strode over in long strides towards Skinner and hissed, "I don't want him talking with her."

"Why?" Skinner's tone was knowing – but Spender didn't catch on to it, so wrapped up was he in his own fury.

"He's forbidden from the X-Files. He's to stay out of this."

"She's asking for him." Skinner pointed out reasonably.

"She's my mother."

"What are you afraid of, Agent Spender?"

"Of Agent Mulder filling her head with alien-abduction nonsense."

"Are you afraid of the truth?"

"I want to know who did this to her and why. That's all I want."

"Then why not use every resource available to you?"

Spender frowned at his superior for a few brief moments, clearly considering it, despite himself. The Agent shook his head eventually. "I'll send you a progress report." And abruptly left towards the car. Skinner shook his head in exasperation at the Agent's antics.

Xander decided it was time to make his move.

He confidently approached the policeman manning entry to the site and flipped open his Universal Psychic ID. "I'm with the FBI, I have a message for AD Skinner." The policeman simply nodded after glancing at the badge, and lifted up the tape for Xander.

Once beyond he casually walked over towards the Assistant Director. "AD Skinner."

The tall man stopped and turned narrowing his eyes at Xander. "Yes? Who are you?"

"We have a mutual friend, though he's been feeling really underappreciated recently, doing grunt work meant for a rookie straight out of Quantico, I'm also responsible for saving you from perpetual slavery…"

Skinner just raised his hands to stop him. "Mr E. Mulder said you might drop in, though by all rights I should have you arrested for trespassing on a Federal crime scene."

"That is your choice," Xander shrugged, "though I think you'll find me missing from any jail cell in short order. But is that the reward I have to look forward to for saving your butt?"

Skinner sighed and flatly said, "What do you want?"

"Nothing really, just wanted to touch bases with you; did Mulder give you that mobile phone?"

"Yes," nodded Skinner. "Though I'm not really sure what you hope to accomplish."

"Ratboy will be in touch soon, Agent Skinner, when he does…tell him exactly what he wants, but of course, the instant after you do, call me and Mulder…it's that simple."

"Fine," Skinner said abruptly, "and?"

"Any idea why Cassandra wants to see Mulder?"

"You'd have to ask her," Skinner shrugged, "though I can imagine she has quite the story to tell."

"Then I suggest you try and facilitate a meeting between the two of them as soon as possible. Have a good morning, Assistant Director."

Xander turned and left the scene.

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**Silver Springs, Maryland**

Xander stood on the opposite side of the street from a rather nice two storey mansion house, with lush green front lawn with sprinklers spraying merrily away. It was your average friendly neighbourhood in the small city just north of Washington DC. It hardly looked at all like the place his target would go to. Yet that was seemingly the point.

After all, a full blown member of the Syndicate to organise the planned Skrit Na Invasion of Earth, wouldn't be in his 'secret volcano lair' cackling evilly over his plans. No, such men wore the kind face of your normal every day old man.

This Syndicate member had balding dark grey hair with a truly hale and weathered face, slightly stooping in his old age – about in his late sixties. The only reason Xander knew that this man was Syndicate was because he had trailed one of the Reticulans to this location. The Reticulan in question had assumed the shape of one of their victims from the trainyard – a Doctor of some sort that had been working on Cassandra Spender.

Xander did not have to worry about being spotted by the Reticulan – since he was wearing a Phase Isolation Suit that the Federation used to keep its scientists from being observed by pre-warp cultures. It also came with a built in Tricorder – since a device hanging in mid-air would be a pretty good clue that an Invisible man was walking about.

He wouldn't need it though. He had already used his internal scanner and technomagic skills to record a most illuminating discussion of a telephone conversation; by interfacing with the phone lines and breaking the secure encryption.

"Hello," the Syndicate Elder had answered.

"Have you heard the news?" a rough unknown voice spoke.

"No."

"The Rebels have struck," the voice spoke gravely.

"Where?" the Elder asked flatly.

"In Virginia. During one of our medical procedures. They killed the project doctors. Burned them."

"All of them?"

"Yes, Dr. Openshaw died in the hyperbaric chamber this evening."

"My God," the Elder was clearly shocked by his tone.

"I've called an emergency meeting of the Syndicate. Only the future rides on our response."

"I'll be on a plane."

Xander watched as the Reticulan rang the doorbell. The Elder took a few moments to answer, clearly still shaken somewhat by the news. He opened the door and looked completely surprised at the identity that the Reticulan had assumed.

"Dr Openshaw?"

"I've come to see you," 'Openshaw' said tonelessly imposing physically into the doorframe, stopping the Elder from closing it. The Elder blanched with fear as he connected the dots – frantically reaching towards the face of the Reticulan and pushing against it, which promptly melted away like rippling clay into a face that had no eyes, no mouth, no nose…yet it was clear to Xander this was not natural…as the gruesome scars at those spots showed.

The Reticulan grabbed the Elder with great strength, lifting him off the floor easily, closing the door.

Screams and crackling of flame heralded the death of the Elder. Xander felt sickened by it as his out-of-phase remote probe showed the scene in all its brutality from an overhead vantage point. He wished he didn't have sit back and allow the Reticulans to murder the Elder, but there was no telling how the aliens would react to offers of an alliance with DWX, and he also needed scans of the Burn weapon – to devise a defence and intelligence on the Reticulans modus operandi.

It was the first example of anti-personnel weaponry the Reticulans used – and if they had it, the Skrit Na would have it too. The looming war for Earth would not be just fought in the skies and the void of space, after all.

888888888888888888888

It was a darkened room, filled with comfortable armchairs of green leather, all arranged to face in the direction of a flexible screen, which was reflecting the light from a slide projector. It allowed the various men either sitting or standing around the room to look at photographs that were being displayed by a very fit man in his mid thirties, with impeccably cut hair, holding the remote control with his right hand due to his prosthetic left arm.

Krycek was coolly narrating them and delivering a briefing of the slides showing yet more horrific deaths by burning.

"Rebels have attacked and burned project facilities in New Mexico and the Southwest. The medical staff at our Arizona research facility's been slain. The train-car deaths cost us. Work on the human/alien hybrids will suffer the death of Dr. Openshaw."

"What do they want?" asked a heavy set, square jawed man with slightly greying hair, his voice a deep monotone.

"To expose our enterprise-everything we've worked for," explained a skinny man, in his mid fifties, a Morley brand cigarette in his fingers – which he would occasionally take a puff from. His eyes were flat and expressionless as if they held no life in them.

"Well, some hotshot reporter's going to put the pieces together not to mention law enforcement," worried another member of the Syndicate.

"We have our control on the federal agencies. Our new man at the FBI's very capable of diverting attention," Smoking Man dismissed the worry, stamping out his current cigarette and immediately lighting up a new one.

"Why not side with the rebels... join their alien resistance?" asked a very familiar Syndicate member – who should have been dead and in fact, had been killed the very previous day.

"It's an option," conceded another member.

"It's an option you declined long ago. Resistance was futile then. Why would it be any less so now? That's why you voted against it-- against men like Bill Mulder. Collaboration has allowed you to prepare... to stall colonization. I mean, how close are you to developing a human/alien hybrid? That alone ensures your survival," Krycek stated firmly.

"As slave laborers for the aliens," said the supposedly dead Elder.

Smoking Man and Krycek narrowed their eyes in suspicion at the Elder's seemingly pro-rebel statement, but buried them for investigation later.

"What about your vaccine? By collaborating, you bought yourself time to secretly develop a way to combat the aliens-- to fight the future," Krycek said ominously.

"Alex, enough!" Smoking Man snapped to Krycek, and turned to look at the Elder thoughtfully. "For 50 years, we've worked on this project-- 50 years since Roswell. We can't sacrifice ourselves for every new threat, can we now?"

"Computer, pause program. And raise illumination."

The world suddenly froze at Xander's command, and the light was raised; revealing him, Giles, T'Jen, Dawn, Faith, Buffy and finally Gibson, standing off to one side outside of the holodeck recreation of the meeting held in the Syndicate's 46th Street location in New York City.

"This meeting was recorded by my remote drone a few hours ago, who followed the 'Elder'; he's actually a shape shifting Reticulan," Xander explained. "Gibson?"

The young telepath, looking much healthier now, more and more like the boy he was supposed to be, nodded and began to walk around the recreation, staring at each Syndicate member, before coming face to face with Smoking Man.

"This is Cancer Man," Gibson scowled at the holographic visage of the man who had caused so much pain in his life. "He's had so many aliases he can hardly keep them straight in his own head. But he refers to himself as Craig Gregory Bartholomew Spender."

"Spender?" Xander asked suspiciously.

"Yeah, he's actually the father of Jeffrey Spender, the guy who's taken the X-Files from Agent Mulder, and the ex-husband of Cassandra."

"The woman who survived the rebel attack?" Giles queried in astonishment. "She actually married such an utter bastard?"

"She didn't know who he really was at the time," Gibson shrugged. "She quickly figured it out though when he arranged for her to be abducted by the Skrit Na, and handed over to the scientists working on the human alien hybrid project."

"Now that is one amoral SOB," Faith blinked in astonishment.

"It first happened on November 27th, 1973; the exact date that Agent Mulder's sister was also abducted. Mulder's father also worked with CGB Spender in the conspiracy," Gibson explained further. "If Cassandra Spender is free, alive and according to Xander, not entirely human, then she is a successful hybrid. We must find her and protect her from the Skrit Na and the Syndicate…because if a hybrid can be produced…then the aliens will come earlier, before we are ready."

"Mulder should know," Xander posited. "I will go, Faith…I might need an extra hand. Gibson…I'll need your help to convince Cassandra to come."

"Are you sure it's wise to expose Gibson?" Giles worried.

"No, it's not, but like or not, we are in the same position as the Syndicate; the future of everything, not just Earth, rests on Cassandra's very existence."

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_A/N: Been working on this one for a while, since it's a crux point of the story. Sorry for the delay._


End file.
